By Kindra Lawson
Last year, my dad started keeping bees. He absolutely loves them! No matter how far they fly as they search for sweet nectar and collect pollen on their tiny little feet, somehow they always find their way back home.
You know what else bees do? They make honey!
It’s a good thing that bees are such hard workers because making honey is not an easy task. Did you know that the average honey bee takes ten trips out of the hive each day? On those trips, it visits between 50-100 flowers to collect pollen! For all that, it will produce only 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey...in its lifetime.
When it works together with 11 other worker bees, they can produce one whole teaspoon of sweet, gooey honey for your cup of tea!
Making honey is hard work. So is speaking with kindness! Check out this verse from Proverbs 16:24.
“Kind words are like honey-sweet to the soul and healthy for the body.”
You see, just like honey is sweet to the taste, kind words are sweet to the soul. Did you know that honey has healing properties? Honey has antibacterial and antifungal properties and has been used throughout the ages to heal wounds. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that kind words are being compared to honey in this verse…
Kind words heal wounds!
Mom, you play an important role in teaching your daughter about the power of kindness. You are the one who gets to set the tone in your home for kind words to be released into the atmosphere.
I want to challenge you this month to be intentional to get your daughter (and yourself) speaking words of life.
Now you may be thinking: I know kindness is important, but how do I talk to my daughter to see that?
Here are three creative ideas you can use to start the conversation:
1. An Ooey-Gooey Taste Test
Get out some honey and crackers. Then, tell your daughter about honey bees using the information from the beginning of this post. Read Proverbs 16:24 together and tell her about the power of kindness! Then, eat some honey and crackers together! Maybe you could even turn it into a tea party!
2. What’s in Your Heart Activity
Take two pieces of paper and cut them into hearts (one for you & one for your daughter!). Get out some crayons, markers, or pencils, and then read Luke 6:45. What comes out of your heart was in your mouth! Ask your daughter what kind of things she has been filling her heart with lately. Talk about how important it is that we fill our hearts with kindness!
“What comes out of your mouth was in your heart.” - Dannah Gresh [Put in quote block and link the quote to Luke 6:45]
Next, Write all of the good things that you would like to store up in your hearts! Decorate the heart and tape it to your mirror as a daily reminder to fill your heart with kindness.
3. The Kindness Challenge
Up for a mother-daughter challenge?
Read Ephesians 4:29 together and talk to your daughter about the power of her words. Words can build someone up OR they can tear others down. Ask your daughter how she feels when someone says something mean to her. Then, ask her how she feels when someone says something kind…
Finally, do this challenge together:
For the next week, commit to ONLY speaking kind words to others. If you slip up and say something that isn’t nice, apologize to the person and say three nice things to them so that they can be encouraged!
Would you like a tool that helps your daughter remember to use her words carefully? Maybe something that reminds her every single day that words have power? This month we’re shipping The Kindness Box to all of our True Girl subscribers and it’s brimming with daily Truth about the power of words.
Learn more about the new True Girl subscription plan.
The True Girl subscription is your toolbox to teach her to love her Bible! Every month your inbox can be filled with a coaching video on important topics and tools to draw your daughter into the Word. And our ultimate option includes a box delivered right to your door! We selected age-appropriate, Christ-centered themes for each box and fill them with ALL-NEW items that build the habits of spiritual disciplines.
