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"GRACIOUS WORDS"" Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones." (Proverbs 16:24). "Sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me." Don't tell me you haven't heard that one when you were a kid. You even said it, didn't you? It's not true, you know. Most of us got into our share of fights and quarrels, got punched, kicked, pushed, slapped, whatever…at least I did. Not that I deserved any of it, but it happened. And all those things are forgotten. The bruises healed and life went on. We're past all that.But the names! The insults! The nasty put-downs! Those are the scars that leave us wounded and angst-ridden years later. "You'll never amount to anything." "You can't do anything right." "How could anyone be so stupid?" "No one would ever want to marry someone as (fat, ugly, dumb) as you are." They come from parents, teachers, employers — people in authority who attacked you when you were vulnerable. And those "names" still hurt after all that time. "Maybe I really am stupid…"Paul was very earnest when he wrote to the Ephesians and implored them — "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. (4:29). To the Colossians he said "Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man." (4:6). Please watch what you say. Make sure everyone you talk to can walk away saying "I needed that; I learned something; and it was expressed with such grace."