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Gracious Words

             The Lord detests the thoughts of the wicked, but gracious words are pure in his sight. (Proverbs15:26)

 

Yesterday’s soulcare idea was grace, partly because this was today’s verse. And I must begin with a negative approach because I suspect we encounter “gracious words” from the mouths of manipulative people. They butter you up to make you taste better when they eat you or feed you to the wolves. (I like that description!) We think we’re wise when we are suspicious of smooth talk. And there’s good reason for this. Unfortunately, we may learn to respond to all kind words with that suspicion, and that’s as big a mistake as believing what the manipulators say. Wisdom doesn’t put all its eggs in one basket.

If gracious words are pure in God’s sight, shouldn’t we learn to use them? It’d be nice if there were classes or books, but there used to be and people misunderstood the purpose, either thinking they were learning to manipulate or to become Stepford people, programmed to say all the right things all of the time so that we didn’t embarrass anyone because of our bad behavior.

I won’t pretend that I speak graciously. I’m not even sure what it means. I’m sure it doesn’t mean saccharine tones and lower than some specific decibel. I suspect that speaking for the benefit of the other is part of it - with no ulterior motives. That doesn’t mean never saying anything negative, because sometimes the grace we need is correction. But I suspect it does require that we see and put the person and their statements in the best light possible while speaking truth.  Yeah, this one is going to take more thought.

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