January 18, 2023
Wednesday
Great Communicators
Proverbs 15: 1-7
6 Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.”
One summer while staying in a vacation cottage, Rich DeVos noticed the garbage collector making his rounds. This man showed up precisely at 6:30 a.m. once a week, moving from cottage to cottage carefully so as not to awaken people. The man was graceful in how he stashed the garbage in his vehicle, and he kept the neighborhood tidy. One morning, DeVos went out and told him, “You’re doing a great job. I came out to tell you that I really appreciate the good job you’re doing.” The man replied that in twelve years of hauling garbage, no one had ever said a kind word to him, including his boss.1
Great communicators don’t just give speeches or deliver sermons. They know how to say a kind word to those they meet along the way. Today you can say a kind word to someone who hasn’t heard one for a while. A kind word is never wasted.
Let Christ’s loyal love for you set the standard for how you love others. Be the friend who sticks closer than a brother.
A point to ponder…
Without my Christian faith, I would have fallen apart and given up. But with Christ strengthening me, I had the will to go on…. My faith in God gave me hope.2
Rich DeVos
Read the Bible through in a year
I love you!!!
1 Rich DeVos, Hope From My Heart (Nashville: J Countryman, 2000), 58-59.
2 Rich DeVos, Hope From My Heart (Nashville: J Countryman, 2000), 99.
© 2000-2023 B. Michael Goerlich