Do not let kindness and truth leave you; bind them around your neck.
Write them on the tablet of your heart. 

Proverbs 3:3

As with all of Scripture, we need to keep this heart verse within its context; which is a discussion on wisdom; covered in our previous 31 Days study. [click here] For today, we will focus on two of the fruits forged in the purifying fire of wisdom; kindness and truth and what we are supposed to do with these, seemingly, dichotomous doctrines. 

When we choose to live in godly wisdom many wonderful principles take root within our deepest self which is referred to in this verse and throughout the Bible as ‘your heart’. Rarely does the world, or do we, pair together truth and kindness, but the Bible often does. 

For His merciful kindness is great toward us, and the truth of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD!

Psalm 117:22

She opens her mouth in wisdom,
and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.

Proverbs 31:26

People who pour out truth without kindness are just plain mean bullies and we tune them out quickly. Whether it is a shrieking protester invading our personal news feed or the neighbor on the other side of the fence or our favorite athlete pandering the latest gadget, we do not like being screamed at even if what is screamed is true. Not all bullies scream, though, so we must be very discerning…wise. There are quiet and demur bullies out there and I think they may be the most dangerous of all. 

However, on the flip side of this coin; someone who is all kindness, but with little or no truth in her words can be annoying at best, and often detrimental at worst. When we don’t wrap our kind words in truth, then we give false hope to those we are speaking with and cannot supply any concrete ideas or suggest any substance-based action steps someone can actually implement effectively. We may listen out of politeness, but we place little value on what is being said; their words offer us very little confidence and therefore little comfort.

What are we to do then, with kindness and truth? Bind them around our neck; in other words, keep them at the forefront of all we think, say and do. In essence, we write or store or, in modern terms, archive, these two complimentary principles deep within us…deep within our hearts! Nothing escapes out of us that hasn’t first been purified from within; in wisdom and then polished up in kindness and truth!

Oh, how much trouble and frustration and hurt I would avoid for myself and toward others if I just got this one verse deep within the tablet of my heart. If I would just archive kindness and truth into all the deep recesses of who I am!