What do you think the “most important” words are that you can say to another person? Would it be I love you? You’re special? You’re wonderful? You can do it? All of these could be.

Of course, it would depend on the situation and the condition, right? It also depends on who you are and who that other person is.

A loved one or a close business associate of yours has lots of opportunities to hear your words of wisdom. Yet perhaps the person who could benefit most might be a stranger or distant acquaintance.

DeLinda McDaniels shares her story about the “most important words.” Please read on . . .

The most important words you’ll ever say will be the kind words FELT, not just heard, by another person. I know this to be true because I still remember the most important words I ever heard. I was a seven year-old attending summer bible school at a church at the end of my street. One morning my bible school teacher looked down at me and told me she was happy I was able to attend, and that she thought I was SPECIAL. I tried to look away but her eyes were holding my heart. I didn’t know what to say, because I’d never heard words like that before.

Her words were the first kind words I HAD EVER HEARD. I’ll never know why she said those words.

Perhaps she spoke to me because I looked hungry and kind of thin or because my clothes didn’t fit and I was dirty. Maybe it was the fear in my eyes or the bruises on my body.

All I know for sure is that her words CHANGED MY LIFE. Because of her, I felt special. Forty five years later, I still see her face and know the feeling of her words.I’m sure she had no idea how important her words were to me. But I know what it feels like to be special, because a stranger took a few minutes out of her day to say something kind.

I never saw the woman again. I don’t even know her name! But this I do know, I know the importance of a few kind words from a stranger, a woman who spoke to me once, when I was seven years old. Her face is burned in my mind and her words are cradled in my heart. Because of her, I know that the most important words we ever speak are the kind words felt by another person.