Say Nice Things

“If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all!” I heard that a lot when I was growing up. Apparently, I was a little too blunt for my own good. I honestly want to apologize to anyone whose feelings I hurt with the unkind things I said as a child, especially my cousins. Sorry guys! I’ve thankfully moved past that stage and have become a much nicer person. I’m also very humble, but that’s neither here nor there.

But I’ve recently been thinking about that phrase, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all,” and have begun to wonder if the opposite is true. Honestly, why don’t we ever say, “If you have something nice to say, go ahead and say it!”

So for the past three weeks, I set up an experiment. I told myself that anytime that I thought anything positive about another person I would find a way to tell them. At first it started off very slow. I found that sometimes I was just too shy or embarrassed to compliment someone else. But I decided to fight past the shyness and just be kind. I started with small things, “I really like your shoes today!” Then graduated to medium compliments, “That was a great comment you had at today’s meeting.” Finally, I worked my way up to more personal things, “I really enjoy talking to you! It brightens my day!”

I can’t tell you how good it feels to see someone’s face light up after I complimented them. It made me wonder why I didn’t do this more often. But what surprised me the most is that the more I said nice things about others, the easier it became to see the good in people.

Maybe that’s why God gives us the following instructions:

“So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing” (1 Thessalonians 5:11, NLT).

Who knew being nice could feel so good?!

Jael Amador writes from New York, New York.

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