“Sticks and stones can break you, but words are medicine. When I’m black and blue, broken and bruised. I hear your voice again. Words are medicine.”

Those words come from a little known favorite song of mine by Tim McGraw.

Indeed. Words are medicine! As a child I remember hurtful words and even now as an adult there are hurtful words I remember. Those words ring in my memory as a tape playing over and over. I once heard that it took 100 positive statements to counter act one negative statement. I believe that may very well be true. It has been through God’s Word, prayer and the encouragement of good brethren that has helped me gain confidence in myself.

I’m quite sure that some of you, if you trace back through your day, recall whether you were uplifted or torn apart by….words.

Words……can challenge us, uplift us, encourage us, make us smile or make us cry. Words can bind up or tear apart …… marriages, friendships, families, congregations and at times, perhaps, more often than not, create such a division that these relationships can never be repaired.

Remember to leave your husband, wife, children, friends, brethren, elders, preachers with loving and kind words. You never know what goes on in a person’s heart or a battle they may be fighting and not disclosing the information to you. A smile, a kind and loving word soothes and comforts their heart. As I once read. “Carve your name on hearts, not marble.”

Proverbs 16:24 tell us “Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.” Proverbs 25: 11 “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.”

“When you’re black and blue, broken and bruised, just hear His voice again. His Word is Medicine.”

Eileen Light