What’s your favorite color?  I love lots of different colors, but if pressed to answer the question, I’d say blue.  What about you? Do you have a favorite? 
I have a friend who wanted her three year old daughter’s favorite color to be pink.  I have no idea why, she just did.  One day I was at their house and my friend called her daughter into the room and said, “Katie Marie, what’s your favorite color?”  Katie Marie looked at me, smiled and said, “Pink.” But the minute her mother turned away, Katie Marie tugged on my hand and whispered, “It’s really purple.”  I tried my best to stifle my laughter.
I had a college professor who taught a humanities class on the power of words.  His name was Dr. William Purkey, and he lived up to his name.  He was a lot of fun and so was his class. Through a study he did he determined words could be divided into two basic categories and he used two colors to label the categories.  Blue was stated to be an inviting, soothing color, so if words were positive, encouraging and uplifting he referred to them as blue words.  Orange, on the other hand, proved to be less pleasing and even offensive to some, but don’t tell that to an Auburn fan. Dr. Purkey called words that were harsh, derogatory or degrading orange words.  He concluded it takes twelve blue words to counteract every orange word spoken to us.  I often wondered if Dr. Purkey referred to the book of Proverbs during his research.
Proverbs 18:21 says, “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat of its fruit.”  Proverbs 12:18 says, “Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.  Proverbs 16:24 says, “Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.”  I could go on, but you get the idea. I’d say King Solomon and Dr. Purkey agreed on a few things.
The bottom line is simple, words can hurt or words can heal, but either way they yield power.  If you don’t believe me, do some research of your own.  For one day choose to intentionally speak only blue words to everyone you encounter, no matter how they speak to you. If someone is kind to you, be kind back.  If someone is rude or insulting, be kind back.  Two things will happen.  First, you’ll feel better because you’ll be speaking life to everyone, and second, those around you will feel better because they’ll be the recipients of life giving words.
What type of words make up your daily vocabulary?  Are they blue or are they orange?  It’s not too late to choose another color.