Power of Words

I think we underestimate the power of words. Words can heal, encourage, empower, devastate, destroy and stay with you forever.
I reconnected with an amazing woman that I knew when I was a teenager; she listened to me, encouraged me and spoke powerful words to me. I wonder if she realizes that a single sentance that she said to me changed my life; I'm going to be overdramatic here and say that her words saved my life. I was telling her my frustration with my Dad and my feelings with our relationship and she told me this "when my early daddy steps out, thats when my heavenly Daddy steps in". That changed my life. That changed and defined my relationship with God. I honestly don't know if I would be following Christ if she hadn't said that to me. I had always struggled with viewing God as a father figure but her words allowed me to view God not the same as an earthly father but instead the Ultimate and Perfect father. It also redefined my relationship with my earthly dad. It made me realize that Dad isn't perfect, he's not God and I don't need to feel as "let down" when he fails because he will fail. And I also failed in my relationship with him. I was not a perfect daughter and he was not a perfect father and thats okay.
And although I look at Mike as being this amazing and perfect Dad to Z, he won't always be perfect. And I hope Z always realizes that God is the Ultimate Daddy and regardless of his emotions and relationship with Mike, God the Daddy will always be there for him.
I hope we can all realize the power of our words and I know that people may not always realize when they say something that forever changes someone else but I think it's important to know it can. My experience was positive but I've also had people say careless things to me that I still remember and are still affected by those words. I want to be like that woman, I want to remembered years later because I positively affected someone and not because I carelessly hurt them.