A healthy dose of laughter

I was reading a blog post the other day and it started me thinking about that verse in the bible that says, "Pleasant words are a honeycomb, Sweet to the soul and healing to the bones."

So many times in life we hear negative, sarcastic, or unpleasant words, when all we want to hear are pleasant words. My sister also recently wrote that words are powerful. I agree with that statement, and I sumbit that how one uses words is just as powerful. A bossy tone, a rude tone, a happy tone, a pleasant tone, a selfish tone, or any tone for that matter can be applied to any phrase and change the whole meaning of the phrase depending on the attitude with which it is spoken. In working with children I have learned that how we make someone feel with our words is just as important as what we have to say with our words. The phrase "let's get to work," can either empower a child or deflate them depending on the tone with which it is delivered. We all encounter situations in which we would love to have a good time but we become offended because we were offended by the rude or offensive speech or actions of another. When that happens we have the power to choose "pleasant words" and break what seems to be a compounding negative cycle before it escalates to "good time" ending rut. Those ruts are so hard to get out of, yet so easy to avoid, kind of ironic I guess. It's good to know that we can choose in those situations between being offended or being a source of pleasant words.