Breaking Chains That Bind

By Charlotte Riegel –

“I wonder when I’m going to make something of myself?” asked my husband after yet another setback in his fight to succeed. I had heard this statement off and on for too many years. He had attempted several careers and always hit a wall, or seemed to climb ladders only to discover they were leaning against the wrong wall, if they were even leaning against any wall at all. He was discouraged and I was tired of hearing the negative put-downs of himself.

I felt as if he had done amazingly well to keep our family of 7 protected from the elements, fed and clothed throughout the many challenges we encountered. It occurred to me that perhaps the power of his words was part of the problem. I confronted him about the phrase he absentmindedly spoke all too frequently.

We agreed to invite a trusted, highly respected friend for dinner to discuss ridding my husband of this bane and then praying for the bondage to be broken. He graciously agreed to participate.

After considerable discussion over dinner about the futility of how life seemed to be treating my husband, we shared various scriptures then placed a piece of plastic chain links around one of his legs and a leg of the chair he was sitting on to symbolize how these words of failure were binding him. After praying for God to break the power of these words over his life, he took scissors and cut the chain to emphasize God’s power to set him free from the bondage he had been in.

I never heard him say those words of failure ever again. He increasingly felt more accomplished and much happier as the years progressed.

“Thank you, Lord, for vividly showing us the power of our words. Help us to choose wisely what we say each day.”

“It is what a man thinks of himself that really determines his fate.” Henry David Thoreau