You catch more flies with honey.
It’s true.
People are drawn to those who speak to them and about them kindly.
Speaking to others in a kind manner is a characteristic that we don’t come in contact with today like we use to.
It takes very little courage to click send.
In the past when you wanted to speak poorly about someone, you did it behind their back (still a terrible thing to do) but today, people get to hide behind their computer screens and phones and we get a whole lot more bold with how we respond to others.
You don’t even have to share your name. You can just be blatantly mean and remain anonymous.
Sweetness to the soul
I think today, more than ever before, it’s incredibly refreshing to hear kind and gracious words. Words have a huge impact on our mind and our body.
Like the verse says in Proverbs 16:24
“Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.”
I know I have felt sick to my stomach for days when someone has been downright mean toward me and have felt a renewed sense of joy and energy when I hear encouragement and praise.
Words affect our entire being. And they can remain a part of our makeup for the rest of our lives. I can remember as a child things I was told, both good and bad, and even today I have to battle the lies to embrace the truth.
I want to be remembered as kind and loving
If I leave one legacy, I think I would want it to be that I left others feeling good about themselves. Not because I lied to butter them up or made things up to baby them into feeling good. But because I truly found the good in someone and left them feeling like I saw that piece of them and treated them in a way that they felt loved and respected.
Even when I have to share something negative, I want to strive to do it in a way that is gracious and kind. There really are ways to give constructive criticism, to not be so blunt and disrespectful, both in our every day lives and our social media lives. There are real people on the other side of that screen, who feel hurt, pain, joy, and love.
Choose to speak life
We have the power to speak life and/or death into those around us. We can make a person feel incredibly small or incredibly loved.
We need to be more careful with our words. With our friends, with strangers, and for sure with our families- the ones who sometimes get the brunt of our frustrations.
So, stand out from the crowd. Have the courage to be kind. Speak life into those we come into contact with.
Bible journaling details
To create the artwork on this page, I actually started with painting a bee with Neocolor ii water-soluble crayons and a water brush on some watercolor paper.
I then photographed said bee, and copy and pasted it over and over, making different sizes in photoshop, & created a PDF so that I could print it on sticker paper and offer the bee as a download to anyone who wanted to try this page!
Here’s what is on the download… There are 3 hexagons that you can use to trace your honeycomb pattern or cut out and stick on your page, bees, and the verse. Plus, I only used half a page to save on sticker paper.
To do this page, I started by tracing the hexagons. I simply moved them around under the page in my Bible to get the result I wanted.
Next, I used my Neocolor ii watersoluble crayons to color in the hexagons, followed by a waterbrush to apply water and transform the crayons into a watercolor feel.
For more on some of my favorite supplies and links to check them out, refer to My Top 10 Favorite Bible Journaling Supplies.
After everything was dry, I traced the hexagons with a faber-castell pitt pen size F(ine), cut out my stickers to be used, placed them on my page, and that was it! Easy peasy!
My son helped me out by videoing this process. Bless his heart. But it looks like it may not load. hahahaha. Oh dear. Let’s not tell him.
Let me know if you get a chance to try this out! I’d love to see your pages!
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