"You're a bad girl and you're going to hell for that!"

The words echoed through my eight-year-old head. Squeezing my eyes shut I begged God, once again, not to send me to hell. I tried to choke back the tears, but I had no control over them, as if they had a mind of their own.

With a sniffly nose, I wiped the salty water off of my face with the palms of my hands.

I pictured myself screaming in the middle of red hot flames and coals. I lifted the edge of my white cotton blanket and crawled underneath, curling into a fetal position.

I was a good child. I couldn't understand what I did so bad all the time to be in danger of hell. This fear transformed into a fear of the end of the world. A fear I'd keep into my early teens.

This is an example of the power of words. Words can build a person up or tear them to shreds. Words have the power to destroy a person's life; especially the ones coming from those we love and look up to.

I heard damaging words all throughout my childhood. I was told I was going to hell so many times that I absolutely feared death and in turn this turned into a very deep-seated fear of the end of the world.

I want you to think back when you were a child. Do you remember any words spoken to you which had such an impact on your life? Most of us can remember a few instances like this.

Using words to hurt someone is an anger problem, which needs to be controlled. It stems from speaking before you think. Once the words are said, they can not be taken back. Sure you can apologize, but an apology will not magically erase the harsh words already spoken.

There is a well-known experiment from Dr. Masaru Emoto, a creative and visionary Japanese Researcher. He taped different words to bottles of water, in order to determine if words affect something as simple as water. The words actually changed the crystal molecules. Positive words made dirty looking molecules, clear and beautiful. While negative words made a clear, beautiful crystal molecule look muggy, dark and ugly. This provides physical evidence that thoughts, words, music and ideas do affect you at not only an emotional level, but a physical one as well. Our bodies are made up primarily of water; If positive or negative words can have this kind of effect on a single molecule of water, imagine the change it may produce in your own body.

One must not ever forget that words are one of the most powerful tools we have. Use them with caution.

Tracey Wilson is an author on http://www.Writing.Com/ which is a site for Writers. Many of Tracey's writings can be found at http://www.writing.com/authors/intuey