The driveway was on a steep hill, and a friend was at our house getting ready to leave. Her little boy had already jumped into the van as she turned to say something to us. That was when he kicked it out of gear. It is a sick feeling to watch such a thing happening. This had all the makings of a terrible tragedy. I can only believe that unseen angels went into action that day.

Backwards down the hill it went. It crossed the street and came to rest on a bush. The frightened Mother ran to the van and pulled her little boy out. Powered by adrenaline, she kept asking if he was alright. She was so loud that she couldn’t hear him saying, “My ear hurts.” When she did hear him, she asked, “Did you hit your head?” “No,” he said, “You yelled in it.” All was well, and a spiritual lesson was to be gleaned from what had happened: Sometimes the greater hurts of life do not come from accidents, but from words; and the way they are spoken.

Solomon wrote that evil words destroy one’s friends. How many times have we seen that? He also wrote that it is foolish to belittle a neighbor, and a person with good sense remains silent. Let our words be healing and helping words. “Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body” (Proverbs 15:1).