If you will be good to this people

and please them

and speak good words to them,

then they will be

            your servants forever.

                     2 Chronicles 10. 7

(People may not remember

                 our exact words,

but always how we treat them.

Never underestimate

the power of kindness

              and affirming words.

A gentle response

    takes the world off-guard,

    never what others expect

        in a volatile situation.

Because God's Spirit dwells in us

      we can respond differently.

And it always matters

     more than we can know,

even in ways we may never see.

On the wisdom of this verse

   pivoted the future of a kingdom

            and its resulting division.

We never realize

   how profoundly different

   the outcome can be

       from which words we choose

   and how we speak them.)

O LORD,

May we embrace Your Word.

And let it mold our own words,

     change our hearts

                  and attitudes,

and radically redeem

   the most impossible situations.

Help us to bring

   the name of Jesus here today,

wherever we are,

whatever we are doing,

how we respond,

    even among resistant people.

Please let Your love and grace

     surprise everyone involved

and alter the world

                 for Your glory.