Speak It

Sometimes I'll be walking somewhere with my cousin and mention to her how I liked a random person's hair or outfit that walked by. This one time in particular, my cousin turned to me, and said, "well, why don't you just tell them?" I was going to try and think of a reason why, but then I realized that there is really never a reason for me to not compliment someone. It sucks when you tell someone you like their shirt and they either ignore you, or they don't hear you, but so what. If someone doesn't acknowledge my kindness, will I die? Is my life going to be altered? No.

We never know what is going on in someone's life. They could have had the worst day ever or felt extremely discouraged, but you taking seconds out of your day to compliment them could help them to feel a little bit of hope and joy. Speaking life into other people barely takes any time out of my day. I can easily compliment someone as I am walking by and continue on with whatever I was doing. There have been countless times when I have told someone that I liked their hair, and after saying thank you, they confess that were feeling kind of self conscious about the style, or that they didn't like the hair cut, but my words helped to boost their confidence. Our words truly have power. Two of my favorite scriptures that speak about this are "kind words are like honey - sweet to the soul and healthy for the body" (Psalm 16:24) and "death and life are in the power of the tongue" (Proverbs 18:21).

Ever since I have implemented this whole idea of not keeping (positive) thoughts in my mind, I have noticed that when I encourage others, I feel encouraged myself! It gives me joy to see other people full of life and confident in themselves. We can never celebrate others too much.

If you find yourself thinking in your head, "Wow, that person's ___ is so cool," then tell them! Our words are more powerful if they are spoken. I hope that this lesson I learned from my cousin speaks to you and encourages you to speak more life over people.

"If you see something beautiful in someone, speak it." -Ruthie Lindsey

Until next time,

Kae