August 6, 2021
Words that Breathe Life
Sharon Jaynes Today's Truth
Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones (Proverbs16:24 NIV). Friend to Friend
Have you ever had times when you felt like you just couldn't breathe? Stress weighs you down and the "to-do list" becomes the "too-much-to-do list." Sometimes we just need a friend to come and breathe life into us. And one of the ways they do that is with words. When I was in my teens, I went scuba diving with some friends. I had no training and probably shouldn't have been in deep water, but I was a teenager and threw caution to the wind. The guy who took me below the surface of the deep, another teenager I might add, strapped an oxygen tank on his back, a mask on his face, and flippers on his feet. I only had a mask and flippers. "Where's my oxygen?" I asked. "I've got it," he answered as he patted the tank on his back. So, into the ocean we jumped. He put his arm around my waist as though I were a sack of potatoes and down we went. John drew oxygen from the tank and then passed the breathing apparatus to me. We took turns breathing in the oxygen in what he called "buddy breathing." It then occurred to me that I was totally dependent on this boy to keep me alive! Buddy breathing reminds me of the life-giving words of my friends that I've experienced through the years. Words that have been like oxygen when I've felt like I was drowning. Solomon wrote, "Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones" (Proverbs 16:24 NIV). Life-giving. Soul-nourishing. Buddy-breathing. He also painted a beautiful portrait of the power of a woman's words to her friends in Ecclesiastes 4:9-10,12 (NIV). Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If they fall down, they can help each other up. But pity those who fall and have no one to help them up... A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. | 
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