Apples of Gold

Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a word spoken in right circumstances.Proverbs 25:11 (NASB)I just finished my morning chores, one of them is taking care of my daughter’s horse, and one of the horse chores is dealing with horse pucky. In German horse doodoo is sometimes called “Pferdeaepfel,” which literally means horse apples (road apples). It seems that horse has a knack for depositing his apples liberally and right where he shouldn’t. He is not at all like his predecessor who was nice and tidy. I can tell you this, dealing with horse apples is not my favorite, it is a stinky unpleasant chore.There is something worse than Pferdeaepfel, rotten verbal apples. They not only stink, they sting, they hurt, they wound. Careless words, angry words, ugly words, discouraging words, mean, malicious, manipulating words, devious, destructive, deceptive words, false, lying, bitter, gossiping words. Stinky road apples carelessly or deliberately dropped in the wrong circumstances, at the wrong time, for no or the wrong purposes. Words that someone has to muck up, deal with, and overcome.God’s word instructs, encourages, and commands us to do the exact opposite, to deposit apples of gold into the circumstances, the situations, the lives of others. Words that need no mucking up, words that are true and loving, words that bless, words that encourage and enlighten, words that help, words that can be trusted, words that care, words that refresh, that have no need to be deodorized and be disposed of, words that that are welcome to linger, words that can be treasured.So what are my words? Apples of gold or apples originating from the backside of a horse? Words that cheer or words that corrupt? Words of value or words of vitriol? Words that heal or words that hurt? What does my mouth deposit into the lives of others? Do my words bring smiles or do the hearers need to grab shovels?You and I can deposit words that are like apples of gold in settings of silver into the circumstances, the struggles, the pain, the confusion, the hopelessness, the bitterness, and the hardship of others. To do so we have to care, to empathize, and to want to make things better. We have to give as much thought what we shouldn’t say as to what we should say (saying nothing at all is still better than horse pucky). We have to consider what God would want us to speak into the lives of others.There is one more thing even better and more glorious than we have sense enough and a heart loving enough to speak apples of gold. It is when God himself speaks into both the circumstances of others and our own, when the eternal Word deposits his words into our ears, into our heart and minds, and into our circumstances. And sometimes He uses our mouths to just that.To God be all glory, love you, Pastor Hans