Healing Words

Devotional for 10.10.11

Happy Monday, dear sisters! And Happy Thanksgiving to our Canadian sisters and their families! Giving thanks to God for each one of you today and all season long!

Let’s turn to Proverbs chapter 14 together so we can get wisdom that goes beyond the gold!

HEALING WORDS

Fools mock at making amends for sin,

but goodwill is found among the upright.

Proverbs 14:9

Last week a Club Coordinator shared how their counselor team had intentionally focused on wisdom about words at their club meeting. When the girls arrived they wrote words of encouragement on lips cut out of red construction paper and posted them to their club’s “Wisdom Wall.” For a large group activity each girl had a piece of paper taped to her back and they wrote nice things about one another on that paper. What fun they had giving and receiving those uplifting words!

“As one of the counselors was leaving club, I noticed that she was upset,” the Club Coordinator said. She asked her about it and the counselor said nothing was wrong. She questioned her again, and the counselor said she was fine. She probed further and the truth came out. Another counselor had made a snide comment that had crushed her spirit.

The Club Coordinator lamented, “How can we focus for two hours on being wise about words and still wound one another before the night is over?” I had asked myself a similar question earlier that week. Within 48 hours of writing a devotional about speaking what is pleasant, beautiful, and kind, I pulled out the sword of sarcasm, wounding a family member instead of nourishing her soul with what was fitting and appropriate. What a battle it is to consistently be wise with our words!

Romans 8:1 reminds us that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Jesus paid for that sin on the cross. Our job is to repent to God and to others, receive His grace, and press on to be the wise women He calls us to be.

Some of the best healing words that we can gift to one another is “I’m sorry,” “Please forgive me,” “I love you.”

Fools mock at making amends for sin (Proverbs 14:9a). They dismiss and excuse their reckless words with, “She had it coming, it just slipped out, it’s no big deal . . .” They fail to comprehend that God hears their words and will hold them accountable for each one. Jesus said, “But I tell you that men (and women) will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:36-37). But goodwill is found among the upright (Proverbs 14:9b). Those who speak wisely, remembering that God hears each word they say, will experience favor and grace in their relationships with Him and with others (Proverbs 3:34, 11:20).

Wisdom Step: What words of repentance and restoration do you and I need to speak today?  

Cold words freeze people and hot words scorch them, and bitter words make them bitter, and wrathful words make them wrathful. Kind words also produce their image on men’s souls; and what a beautiful image it is. They soothe, and quiet, and comfort the hearer.

Blaise Pascal