Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh it glad.
Heaviness is sorrow and anxiety and worry and burden of care weighing on the human heart, making it stoop and leaving a person troubled and sad and despondent and brought down. The good word is a timely and kind and gentle and encouraging word, including words of happiness and faith and health and praise and goodwill, that brings gladness and joy and hope and comfort and cheer to the burdened and sorrowful heart. A kind word should always be spoken when possible, because it can reach a sorrowful heart with singular opportuneness, entering gloom like a firefly entering a darkened room and giving gladness that holds attention and makes troubles forgotten. Even a small kindness such as a smile or an encouraging word can make life feel less harsh, turn sighs into song, and bring lasting joy and heavenly warmth that fills the soul with a glow. Kind and gentle words with patient sympathy can reach people who are lonely or degraded, encourage them toward reform, and open a way back to God, while contemptuous words harden and wound.
Meaning of the Proverb
Proverbs belongs among the book's brief sayings of familiar truths, a concise maxim. Heaviness is sorrow, anxiety, worry, trouble and burden of care weighing on the human heart and making it stoop. It leaves a person troubled, sad, despondent and brought down.
The good word is a timely, kind, gentle and encouraging word for the burdened, sorrowful heart. It includes words of happiness, faith, health, praise and goodwill. It brings gladness, joy, hope, comfort and cheer.
Wealth, rank and outward success cannot keep the heart from heaviness. Comfort rooted in God can give inner sunshine even amid solitude, disappointment and suffering. A person may appear cheerful while being deeply troubled at heart, which makes a timely encouraging word especially helpful.
Speaking the Good Word
Speech is to give comfort rather than to linger on grief, doubt, or illness, for sorrow presses the human heart down while words of happiness, faith, and health encourage and gladden others. A kind word is therefore to be spoken whenever possible, because it can meet a sorrowful heart with singular timeliness. It enters a mourner's gloom like a beautiful firefly entering a darkened room, bringing a gladness that holds the attention and makes many troubles forgotten.
Praise and goodwill spoken at the right time can lift a person out of sorrow, and such speaking costs little while bringing joy to a sad heart. Even what seems small can lift a heavy heart, for a smile can make life feel less harsh and a word can bring lasting joy and heavenly warmth. Sorrow weighs the heart down while a kind word makes it glad, so a smile or an encouraging word can turn sighs into song and fill the soul with a glow of heaven.
Kind and gentle words, joined with patient sympathy, can reach those who are lonely or degraded, encourage them toward reform, and open a way back to God, whereas contemptuous words harden and wound instead of bringing gladness to the burdened heart. Gentle, loving words comfort and cheer the sorrowful, lifting grief from a heart weighed down with care and helping weary people return to their duties with renewed joy. A burden of sadness weighs a person down, but a timely kind word can bring gladness and hope, as when a few words of friendly spiritual counsel brought light to a deeply despondent man who had planned to take his life, and he followed that light until he found Christ and rejoiced in the truth. In the same way sorrow weighs down the heart while a kind, encouraging word makes it glad, so that a kind word to a crying schoolboy can dry his tears, lighten his aching heart, and dispel his darkness.
Heaviness is sorrow and anxiety and worry and burden of care weighing on the human heart, making it stoop and leaving a person troubled and sad and despondent and brought down. The good word is a timely and kind and gentle and encouraging word, including words of happiness and faith and health and praise and goodwill, that brings gladness and joy and hope and comfort and cheer to the burdened and sorrowful heart. A kind word should always be spoken when possible, because it can reach a sorrowful heart with singular opportuneness, entering gloom like a firefly entering a darkened room and giving gladness that holds attention and makes troubles forgotten. Even a small kindness such as a smile or an encouraging word can make life feel less harsh, turn sighs into song, and bring lasting joy and heavenly warmth that fills the soul with a glow. Kind and gentle words with patient sympathy can reach people who are lonely or degraded, encourage them toward reform, and open a way back to God, while contemptuous words harden and wound.
Meaning of the Proverb
Proverbs belongs among the book's brief sayings of familiar truths, a concise maxim. Heaviness is sorrow, anxiety, worry, trouble and burden of care weighing on the human heart and making it stoop. It leaves a person troubled, sad, despondent and brought down.
The good word is a timely, kind, gentle and encouraging word for the burdened, sorrowful heart. It includes words of happiness, faith, health, praise and goodwill. It brings gladness, joy, hope, comfort and cheer.
Wealth, rank and outward success cannot keep the heart from heaviness. Comfort rooted in God can give inner sunshine even amid solitude, disappointment and suffering. A person may appear cheerful while being deeply troubled at heart, which makes a timely encouraging word especially helpful.
Speaking the Good Word
Speech is to give comfort rather than to linger on grief, doubt, or illness, for sorrow presses the human heart down while words of happiness, faith, and health encourage and gladden others. A kind word is therefore to be spoken whenever possible, because it can meet a sorrowful heart with singular timeliness. It enters a mourner's gloom like a beautiful firefly entering a darkened room, bringing a gladness that holds the attention and makes many troubles forgotten.
Praise and goodwill spoken at the right time can lift a person out of sorrow, and such speaking costs little while bringing joy to a sad heart. Even what seems small can lift a heavy heart, for a smile can make life feel less harsh and a word can bring lasting joy and heavenly warmth. Sorrow weighs the heart down while a kind word makes it glad, so a smile or an encouraging word can turn sighs into song and fill the soul with a glow of heaven.
Kind and gentle words, joined with patient sympathy, can reach those who are lonely or degraded, encourage them toward reform, and open a way back to God, whereas contemptuous words harden and wound instead of bringing gladness to the burdened heart. Gentle, loving words comfort and cheer the sorrowful, lifting grief from a heart weighed down with care and helping weary people return to their duties with renewed joy. A burden of sadness weighs a person down, but a timely kind word can bring gladness and hope, as when a few words of friendly spiritual counsel brought light to a deeply despondent man who had planned to take his life, and he followed that light until he found Christ and rejoiced in the truth. In the same way sorrow weighs down the heart while a kind, encouraging word makes it glad, so that a kind word to a crying schoolboy can dry his tears, lighten his aching heart, and dispel his darkness.