Lovely In Word

I once read a book titled Silver Boxes. The premise of this book is that our words are gifts and that we should wrap them up in silver boxes and pass them around to those we come into contact with during our day to day lives. I don't know about you but my words are seldom wrapped in silver boxes and I don't think they would be considered gifts on most occasions.

If my thoughts are to be lovely and if they have been brought into captivity with Christ then my words should begin to reflect this. My words should be lovely. They should make the person I am talking to feel good about who they are. Worse than underestimating the affect that our words have on the people around us is giving no thought to it at all. How we say hello in passing to a person on the street will affect that persons day. You know this is true because you have undoubtedly had someone grumble at you. You wonder what you did wrong or why you deserved such rough treatment. On the other hand you also have experienced those times when someone tells you that your hair looks good, or that they really appreciated some act of kindness. It lifts you for hours and you think on that compliment over and over. In our culture we all starving for this gift. What a blessing a compliment is to the person who receives it. What a light in the darkness for a person to hear a heartfelt thank you.


We each have a voice and the opportunity to use it as a gift. So the next time we are tempted to complain think about complimenting instead. The next time try a little bit of encouraged and see if that does not get better results. Make your words lovely.