As athletes and coaches we know a lot about disciplining our bodies, but there is one muscle we often neglect to discipline: our tongues. Our gifts and skills may allow us to achieve athletic success, but our ability to maintain that success and honor God with it has much to do with how we use our words.
Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning God created..." How did He create? By speaking. Throughout the next few verses of the chapter, it is revealed that God did not simply act, He used words to establish creation. “And God said…” This gives us the earliest demonstration of the power of words. Later, when "the Word became flesh" and Jesus came to live among us (John 1:14), we read that He used words to fight the temptations of Satan by declaring the Word of God (Matthew 4).