A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver. Proverbs 25:11
Imagine skilled hands fashioning apples out of gold and then placing them in settings of silver. What makes this a work of art is that the gold is surrounded by the silver. If you cut out the silver setting, the gold apples would look bare. If you cut the gold apples out, the silver setting would look like craters on the moon!
The point of the analogy is that the apples of gold and the setting of silver belong together and together they are beautiful. In the same way, what you say and how you say it belong together. What you say may be right, but if the way you say it is harsh, it will do no good.
But the right word spoken at the right time in the right way is a thing of great beauty. “Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body” (Prov. 16:24). We read in Proverbs 15 that “a soft answer turns away wrath” (15:1), “a gentle tongue is a tree of life” (15:4), and “gracious words are pure” (15:26).
So “Let your speech always be gracious… so that you may know how you ought to answer each person” (Col. 4:6). Don’t ever fall for the idea that soft, gentle, or gracious means weak. “With patience a ruler may be persuaded, and a soft tongue will break a bone” (Prov. 25:15).
Ask the Lord today to give you gracious words. Ask Him to help you speak in a way that only ever honors Him. And in your conversations today, be mindful of your words. Ask God to help you speak words of life.
