My 78-year-old mother came to live with us several weeks ago. She'd been told by family members that she'd given up on life and they believed she had only months to live. They told me that, too, so I was surprised when I first saw my weak-but-still-sharp mother. A doctor's words reinforced my impressions when after conducting a physical he said, "Audrey, you have nothing wrong with you except high blood pressure, and we can manage that. You just need to get strong again."

Instead of predicting her death, Dave and I are helping Mom build back and regain her quality of life. I have always known the Bible verse, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue" (Pro. 18:21), but being with Mom at this time in her life has leant new importance to these words. I believe that if she'd continued to hear hints of death, we would have lost our mom much before her purpose was finished. Instead, she is growing stronger each day, recapturing her humor and enthusiasm for living, and yesterday spoke about starting to paint again.

If my tongue holds the power of life and death with my mother, doesn't it make sense that my tongue hold great influence over every other part of my life, too? Of course it does, but so often I forget it.

Once again I come back to the current state of our political affairs. All seems doom and gloom. The left is offering up for president the most liberal they can find, and the right has chosen someone in the middle. The conservative voice speaking up for godly values appears to be drowned out by the louder voices of evil. As Christians, we're tempted to stay home rather than show up and witness defeat. But isn't this a time to speak life into the situation rather than death?

I'm not talking about naming it and claiming it. I'm simply choosing to look to God's Word and to trust what I find there. A person's life largely reflects the fruit of his tongue. To speak life is to speak God's perspective on any issue of life. To speak death is to declare life's negatives, to declare defeat, and to complain.

That includes circumstances surrounding the 2008 elections. God has not lost His control, gone on vacation, wrung His hands, or tried to figure out what to do. We read God's rhetorical question in Job 38:4, "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?" Does it make sense that a God who laid the foundations of the earth would be AWOL today? And doesn't it make sense that we can keep on trusting Him no matter how bad things appear?

I would like to challenge you today not to tongue-in-cheek reactions but tongue-in-check! Keep your ears open to the words of your mouth: Be sure they're speaking life and not death. And as we do, those living in darkness will be attracted to our light, those knowing spiritual death will be attracted to our spiritual life.

Go ahead, let's speak up for life in our circumstances today. And corporately as each of us do, we will find it makes all the difference.