My wife, Jean, is the living embodiment of Proverbs 16:24, which says, “Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.” Every time I call her on the phone, she answers with a delightful tone that lets me know she’s glad to hear from me. She reminds me that I’m loved and encourages me when I’m having a stressful day. Her positivity blesses me.
It’s not easy to speak words of blessing if we weren’t taught how growing up. Instead of using humor to connect with people, we learned how to cut them down. Instead of constructively sharing our disapproval, we learned to speak harshly. Those negative patterns follow us into adulthood and affect the way we speak to our friends, our co-workers, and our family.
Unfortunately, we can’t press a delete button to erase old messages, but we can learn how to speak words of blessing to people. How? By re-thinking what we say and how we say it.
We accomplish both of those goals by filtering what we say through author Sharon Jaynes’ acronym THINK. Before we speak, we should ask ourselves is what I’m saying:
- True?
- Helpful?
- Inspiring?
- Necessary?
- Kind?
To speak differently, think differently. Transforming our words into blessings begins with transforming our mind. As we do, our words become “gracious” and a “sweetness to the soul.”