A couple of editors got together last year and put together a compilation of stories about the power of words to transform a life. Their set of narratives now appears in print as Simple Little Words, which hit bookstores this week.

My contribution? A story about six words that changed my life. I mean, they really and truly set me on a course that changed my future. The words? Mary has chosen what is better. The one who spoke them: Jesus Christ. The context: Kitchen girl was telling her sister, theology-learning girl, to get back in the kitchen. And Jesus told kitchen girl to back off. Don't you love him?

(To my writing students: How shocking that a sentence which affected me so much could have a "be" verb in it, huh? But just so you know, the Greek has no such wimpy verb: For Mary the good part has chosen. Don't you hate me?)

What words have affected you?