Home Tools for your Journey Aug 13

Thursday, August 13

Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.
—Proverbs 16:24

When we speak, our words are usually directed toward others.  We speak in order to inform, explain, defend, question, support, encourage.  Sometimes, we’re very careful about how those words will affect those who hear them, and sometimes we respond so quickly with our words that we don’t even consider how they will be received.

What we often miss is that the words we speak are thoughts in language. In other words, a thought comes to us and we express it in language. This means that our language is a good indicator of how we think, of what goes on in our mind, of how attached we are to certain things and people.

Just as a child is told that they will become like the company they keep, so we become like the mental and spiritual company we keep. The medical community has proven that we can actually promote our own healing by the thoughts that we have about that healing.  The writer of Proverbs says that we need to be careful how we think, because our life is shaped by our thoughts.

Psychologists tell us that we are molded by what we have been taught to think as children. Words that are fashioned in the company of heaven are sweetness to our souls and health to our bodies.

What mental company do you keep? Where is your mind centered? What spiritual company do you keep? Where is your soul centered?

Gracious God, help me choose to dwell on thoughts that are noble and full of grace, so that I may be noble and gracious.