Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. Wrong! Far less damage is done by sticks and stones. Some of the damage done by words has been known to last a lifetime and to affect an eternity of a soul.

There are ways to use words to bring healing. Healing-overcoming the hurt, comforting the suffering, binding the wound. Encouraging, helpful, motivational, comforting speech. “You can do it!” “Hang in there!” “You’ll do better next time!” “We’re with you all the way!” Wise words.

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen”(Ephesians 4:29).

What do you hear most? Piercing reckless words, or healing wise words? I’m not sure that it has been or ever could be tabulated. It would be interesting to find out, but difficult to count. Maybe there is an easier way to determine what type of words are spoken most without having to count the actual words. Assuming that these two types of words drastically impact people, what if we just counted the number of people who seemed to have a positive outlook as opposed to those who seem to have a negative outlook. Then we would know whether more positive words or more negative words are being spoken. Any predictions?