If you received a dime every time you said a kind word and had to pay a nickel every time you said an unkind word, would you be rich or poor? Paul tell us, ”be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”

Wouldn’t it be interesting if every evening a computer printed out how many dimes we had earned by saying kind things and how many nickels we owed for the unkind words we had said during the day?

Kind words lead to kind deeds and unkind words usually precede unkind acts. All our actions start as thoughts, and the way for us to be kind is to think kind thoughts.

In Paul’s love chapter, he tell us that ”love suffereth long, and is kind.” Just how kind are we? We may say something that is unkind and take comfort in the fact that it is true. It is important that what we say is true, but it must be more than true. It should also be kind.

There is the story about the captain of a ship sailing on the high seas who was so drunk one day that he could not write in the ship’s log. The first mate wrote in the log that day that the captain was drunk. The next day when the captain had sobered up he was angry to find that the first mate had written this in the log. The first mate justified his position by saying to the captain, ”But sir, it was true.” So that day the captain wrote in the log saying, ”The first mate was sober today.” The captain’s entry was also true but was it kind? It inferred, without saying so, that the first mate was not always sober.

We can be guilty of this type of speech. What we say may be technically true but it fails the kindness test. Love is kind. ”Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how to answer every man.”

Have you ever known someone who seemed always to have a kind word to say about everyone? Have you an acquaintance that never has anything good to say about anyone? Which person would you rather be around? Which person are you more nearly like?

An easy test to give yourself before you speak about someone is to ask yourself this question – Would I like someone to say this about me? Had the captain asked himself that question first, he would not have written in the log that the first mate was sober that day.

The Lord Jesus Christ warns us that ”by thy words thou shalt be be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”

We may not gain our riches in this world’s goods by receiving a dime every time we say a kind word, but there is a record being kept of what we say, and by our words we are laying up for ourselves a reward.

Are the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts laying up for us a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give us at that day? In the parable of the pounds, the Lord Jesus told us,”Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee.”

May our prayer be that ”the words of our mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in the sight of our LORD, our strength and our redeemer.”