"Use your words to inspire, joy will fall like rain, when you speak life with the things you say."

-Toby Mac

This past weekend, I met a lovely woman who had a reputation for often expressing her encouragement through the phrases along the lines of "Ya did good honey/ya look adorable/ya doing great!" It was amusing at first, especially when I heard a story of how she even said this to encourage a waiter who was downright rude/probably-needed-to-get-slapped-to-her-and-her-family and obviously didn't deserve these graceful words.

How cool is that to have someone who constantly talked life and encouragement whenever they were around you, even if you were a complete stranger? If there is one thing I wouldn't mind having a reputation for, it would be the reputation of a woman whose words were always full of life to everyone she met. Even a rude waiter named Mr. Butthead.

You know that old saying "stick and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me?" Well, whoever thought of that must have mumbled it in the depth of their sleep because the reality I wake up to and see around me is that words are powerful and can either build life or bring death.

I was staring at the blank screen of this blog post thinking of what to write, when it dawned on me that the power of the pen, er, keyboard, could serve as a modern example of a way to bring either grace-filled words to the world. Or not.

I hope that for whatever it is I write about, be it my dog's latest adventure with the toilet paper roll or the latest photo session and makeover with Heartbox Photography, it would always be written with words filled with life, grace, and inspiration and even the occasional "Ya did real good, honey!"

Happy Thursday!