The words that someone needs to hear can often come from unexpected sources. You may be discussing something that seems completely trivial to you, and even to them, but something you say can strike a chord within them in an unrelated (to you, or most outside observers) area.

You could be discussing sports, and mention how the referee needs to call things fairly (they never do when it’s your team playing). This could then prompt a chain of thoughts resulting in the other person realizing that he needs to call the shots fairly in another situation (ie no favoritism at work, maybe he’s being unfair to his children at home, or something else entirely).

Or who knows, it could prompt him to realize he should spend more time playing with his kids.

What this comes down to, then, is that no communication with others is actually trivial. Any time you open your mouth to speak, and even the nonverbal communication of body language affects this, you are, quite possibly, completely rewriting the direction of the life of your listener.

This is not necessarily intentional, and in fact, I would guess it’s accidental at least as often as intentional. Try to think before you speak, and try, when you can, to realize that often other people will not (think before they speak).

Words are powerful. They can change lives without meaning to do so, both for the better and for the worse. They can affect families, communities, and countries. They can start (or stop) wars. They can heal rifts between brothers. They can lift people up and lead them from the depths of despair, or crush their hopes and drive them into those same depths.

Words can inspire people to change their lives. If you have a talent for words, you may affect lives even more than most. So put your talent to good use and find ways to build people up, to give them a hand up and a means to learn to grow on their own. Avoid things that tear them down, that cause them to stumble on their paths to growth, peace, and fulfillment.

Your words may affect only the one person you’re speaking to at the moment. But they may change that person’s life in a way that affects hundreds. And those people may affect thousands. And they, in turn, can affect millions, and your one conversation with one person may change the path of large portions of the world.

Someone at some point inspired Hitler, and the world was changed. Someone inspired Pope John Paul II, and he changed the world, as well. How different would the world be if no one had inspired Shakespeare to write, Da Vinci to take up art, or Mozart to compose?

Always try to be aware of what is coming out of your mouth, and make it, along with your actions, a model of who and what you want to be. If your words and your actions align with your spirit and your intentions, you become a strong force for the things that you believe.