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

“Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.”

—Proverbs 16:24

All of us have felt this power. Maybe we’re stressed, insecure, frustrated, or exhausted, and someone says something kind. Those words find the hurting place in our hearts, and unexpected tears fill our eyes.

We were trying to hide the hurt, but they saw it, spoke to it, and in doing so, brought a little healing.

We often forget this power when it comes to our own words. Hurtful words come easy. Pleasant words take work and intention.

But since we’ve all had both kind and hurtful things said to us, we know how difficult it is to rid the hurtful ones from our minds, how hard it is to stop fearing they are true, and how long it takes us to put them aside.

The pleasant words often get lost because we can only remember the harsh ones.

When we speak to others, we’re adding to one side of that scale or the other. Something we say may end up in a person’s mind forever—pleasant words bringing gentle encouragement and peace or hurtful ones lingering in insecurity and fear.

There are enough unpleasant words in the world. With every word we say, we can either tear others down or build them up.

When we see a hurt in someone, we shouldn’t be afraid to speak life there. Let’s be intentional about speaking words that build up—words that heal the wounds in others, pleasant words that are sweet to the soul and healing to the body.

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