Proverbs 12:25  An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up.

When I worked in a garden center I didn’t have the regular responsibility of watering the plants.  Occasionally though I would need to help out.  One of the things that I learned was with thousands of plants to water and with frequent interruptions to help customers, it was all too easy to miss some of the plants.  I developed an appreciation for the individuals who regularly watered the plants and did it well.

Given my love for flowers, it became a habit of mine in my daily routine to spot plants that had been missed.  It wasn’t time consuming – it was simply a matter of training my eyes to spot wilting plants, and quickly water them.  I don’t like to see plants die; and it brings such pleasure to see formerly wilting plants revived and blooming.

Kind words are like water – they need to become a part of our daily life.  We all need to speak them to one another.  It’s important that we say them – and that we hear them.  They help in keeping our Christian ‘garden’ of relationships vibrant and blooming.  Anxiety and the stresses of life are all around us, and at times we all succumb to them.  Any of us can become ‘wilted’ and in need of ‘water’.  At such times we can be unaware just how wilted we’ve become – and a kind word can do wonders.

We need to make it a regular habit to speak kind words in our daily interactions – like regularly watering a garden.  It’s also important that we train our eyes to spot those who are ‘wilted’ around us.  God gives us wonderful opportunities to touch them with simple, kind words.  He blesses us so that we might be a blessing to others.   St. Luke’s, the church we attended for years in Akron, Ohio, has as its mission statement, “Blessed to be a blessing”.  Speaking kind words is one important way to accomplish that.  It is also a way to keep ourselves fresh and vibrant by focusing on others rather than upon ourselves.