The Mirror of the Word and other works by C.E. White can be purchased on her website, cewhitebooks.com or on Amazon

“Your speech must always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.”

—Colossians 4:6

A meal may be just as nourishing with or without salt, but it won’t be very palatable if it isn’t flavorful. Some people may not even eat it without salt, rendering it useless.

The same is true of our words. If we speak truth in a hurtful way, others may not receive it. But when we work to season our words with grace, people are far more likely to take that truth into their hearts and be nourished by it.

When something difficult needs to be said, we ought to be “slow to speak” (James 1:19) and consider whether we can respond with grace.

We take a pause, check in with the Holy Spirit, say a prayer (or several!) and evaluate our hearts and what we want to say to make sure it is both true and Christlike.

We take that pause even if it creates an awkward silence, even if it means we lose a fight, and even if it means we never get to make that really great point.

After this, if we find our words cannot be spoken with grace, we should step back from the interaction. We may be able to come back later and reply with grace, but sometimes, it’s not for us to respond at all, and we will benefit from the lesson in “taming the tongue” (James 3:1–12).

Difficult words are much more likely to be heard when they are spoken kindly in love.

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