About a year ago, I was a speaker on the Girls of Grace tour, talking with thousands of teens each weekend about the power of words. One morning, back at my Nashville home, I was getting ready and just thinking/praying through all that was going on at our events. And I saw this sentence run across my mind like a news ticker in Times Square.
What if we killed the mean girl?
I immediately began to argue with that news ticker.
It’s not possible.
She’s everywhere.
There’s a movie about her.
We all know her.
But then I felt like it was less of a random question and more of an invitation.
God was inviting me to step into what He was already doing – rescuing teen girls from the words of others and calling them into something new.
A few months later, the idea of Speak Love was born and as I began to write the book, I realized this was more than an invitation – it was an opportunity to have a front row seat to the show of our lifetime.
The mean girl is going to be a memory. I know, I know, it seems impossible. I get that. In moments, I think it feels that way too.
But then I remember that oceans part when G0d says and dead people breathe again when Jesus speaks and I remember that nothing is impossible to God and He’s the one doing this anyways.
And I’m excited to be a part of what God is doing in the next generation. What an honor we have as adults to help lead this army of young women who are ready to use their words to speak life. God is calling us to teach the younger women a different way to use their words. He’s inviting us to be a part of a massive culture shift where unkind words won’t be welcome and speaking love, deserved or not, will be the norm.
(I think that’s why this post about Miley Cyrus exploded on my blog – because people are tired of the pressure to be unkind and are looking for Christians to say the different thing.)
Speak Love is a manual to walk young women through this new way of using words in how they talk to God, to others, and to themselves.
And so, it’s with much excitement, a little fear and trembling, and total awe that our God invites us into His work, that I say goodbye to the mean girl.
I hope you will, too.
Leave a Comment
Christina Baker says
I love it!
Tayrina says
This is nice!!!!
nhlanhla D says
This is how women should talk. I love it!
Holly says
I was once a mean girl, but with God’s grace I was able to say goodbye to her. A sign that hangs in my office says “We need to change what we say and what we allow to be said in front of us”. I am sorry but I do not know who to credit for that quote. Loved your article on Miley.
Jen says
I am so excited for this book – so much so that I bought it to read myself. I can’t wait to get started (after I finish reading Grace for the Good Girl! 🙂 )
Suzanne says
So true!
Michelle Kendall says
Perfect.
starla says
This is so great, I wish they jad this when I wuz n school. It wuz a total nightmare. I am teachingy daughter to b komd regardless pf jpw ppl treat u. I tell her to let good handle it.
Beth Williams says
Annie,
Absolutely loved this post! This is such a needed topic for women everywhere and of every age. Our women’s Bible study is “The Words a Woman Speaks”. It basically talks not only about the words we use, but how we say them and when. Too many fights & misunderstandings happen due to wrong words spoken unkindly. Let’s all Kill the Mean Girl!!
God Bless!