The YouVersion verse of the day is Proverbs 12:25, “Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up.”

I don’t know how the verse of the day is chosen or who chooses it, but this verse felt particularly applicable. We certainly live in anxious times and the metaphor of a heart weighed down is striking. It put me in mind of swimming in your clothes: it is possible, but so much more difficult. I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels a bit waterlogged at the moment; weighed down by concerns, worries, uncertainties, etc.

It was the second line of the proverb, however, that caught my eye. The reason is that the two parts don’t appear to balance one another. To put it another way, does a kind word really buoy a heart weighed down by anxiety? So I did a little digging (as I am prone to do!). I learned that the two Hebrew words for “weighed down” and “cheers” sound similar and both are often used in the context of worship (“to bow down” and “to rejoice”); tying the two parts of the proverb together.

More interesting, however, was that the “kind” word is, more literally, a “good” word and is the same used throughout Genesis 1 to describe God’s assessment of the created order. A “good” word, in this sense, is one “fit-for-purpose”. This got me thinking. In a time of anxiety, what is the good word that is able to buoy the heart? What might I be able to say to an anxious heart that will cheer it? And this, finally, reminded me that a “good” word is spoken by or to another. There is an implied context of relationship in this proverb. It’s not just getting the word right that cheers a heart, but the “kind” word spoken by a friend. The word spoken rarely solves the anxiety (in fact, getting unsolicited advice can weigh a heart down more!) but speaking with a friend can often buoy my heart.

I could go on, but here’s the challenge for you and I – to be the friend who speaks the “good” word to those whose hearts are weighed down by anxiety.

We live in anxious times. Let’s bring the “good” word!