You remember how good you felt when someone close to you made a concerted effort to bring healing to your spirit by means of kind, affirming words. Particularly those shared in your home or at your church.

It was a wonderful boost to your sense of well-being.

You actually felt more alive because someone wanted to affirm your value in the lives of others.

You found yourself enjoying again your role as a spouse or as a parent or as a child or as an employee or as a church member or as a sibling or whatever.

When people encourage us, we draw life from the relationship and we can pour our lives back into the relationship.

Deceitful words and gossiping words drain the life from us, however, as if an axe swung by an enemy had ruptured our hearts.

Please make intentional efforts today to bring healing to a wounded heart.

If you examine the people in your life closely enough, you’ll find somebody who is really hurting and who needs the kind words that will produce in them a harvest of refreshment.

And if you encounter someone today who is crushing the spirits of others via lies and gossip, please offer healing words to him or to her. It might not be easy to do, but it will be one of the most important things you’ll do for God all week.

That gift of unmerited kindness just might plant a seed of truth that grows over time into a transformed-by-God tree of life.