Pleasant Words

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

Proverbs 16:24, NASB

The Bible’s proverbs are so practical! This was the proverb I read during my “Be still and know that I am God” quiet time today.

I had to laugh when I read the phrase “healing to the bones” in Proverbs 16:24 because my annual bone-density exam was this very same day too! A bone-density test is an easy screening. You lie still while a magnetic shield passes over your body and records your bone density. Just like that, a lot of information about your bones gets recorded, printed out, and sent to the doctor, who goes over it later with you.

While this test is effective in providing helpful information, it has no healing power and is not nearly as fun as pleasant words. We all know what they feel like: gracious . . . kind . . . uncondemning. God can use pleasant words to lift the spirit of even the most critically ill patient. As destructive as the tongue can be, pleasant words are much more powerful!

Recently my family members (including me) slipped into a habit of not carefully filtering our tone or editing the words we were saying to each other. We all fell into the pattern of letting less-than-gracious words slide off our tongues—words that did not feel sweet to the soul or healing to the bones.

Words are so powerful. That’s why reading God’s Word is so life changing. We receive genuine encouragement through these holy and God-breathed words. In the Bible we learn how to develop speech patterns that honor God and others.

As we listen to God’s pleasant words, let’s consider what genuine, pleasant words we can use to encourage others!