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# The Kindness You Owe Your Own Body
- URL: https://thatpaleochick.com/the-kindness-you-owe-your-own-body/
- Published: 2026-10-09T12:06:23.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-09T16:15:56.000Z
- Description: Proverbs 16:24. There is a particular cruelty that happens in the kitchen that nobody talks about.
- Author: Krista Wade
- Tags: Faith, Daily Devotional, #focus-body

> Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.  
>  
> **Proverbs 16:24 (BSB)**

There is a particular cruelty that happens in the kitchen that nobody talks about. You catch your reflection in the dark window above the sink while you're washing up after dinner, and something unkind moves through your mind before you can stop it. Too much. Too soft. Not enough. Most of us would never say those words out loud to another person, but we say them to ourselves without even flinching.

Proverbs 16:24 is about gracious words. Sweet, healing words. And for years I read that verse and thought only about what I said to other people. But lately it has been sitting with me differently. The body God gave you is listening. The way you narrate your hunger, your fullness, your size, your strength, it lands somewhere. Healing to the bones is not just poetry. Bones are the deep structure of you. The framework. And what you speak over yourself, quietly, daily, shapes how you inhabit that framework.

Real food is a form of grace you give your body. So is eating it without guilt. So is going to bed at a decent hour because you know sleep is when your body actually repairs itself. So is pausing before a meal and naming, even silently, that this food is provision. That somebody grew it, or raised it, or caught it, and it is here now on your plate doing exactly what it was designed to do. That is not a small thing. That is the whole thing, actually.

## At the table today: Speak One Kind Thing to Your Body Before Your First Meal

Before breakfast today, pause for just a moment. Place your hand on your belly, your chest, wherever feels right, and say one honest, kind thing out loud to your body. Not a pep talk. Not a fitness affirmation. Something true and gentle, like: you carried me through yesterday, or, you are healing even when I cannot feel it, or simply, thank you. Then eat your first meal of the day as an act of care, not habit or obligation. That is it. One sentence. One meal. That is the whole practice.

## A prayer

*Lord, let the words I speak over this body You made be as gracious as the food You provide to sustain it, and give me the grace today to receive both with a thankful and unhurried heart.*

## Journal

What is one thing you say to yourself about your body that you would never say to someone you loved, and what would the kinder, truer version of that thought sound like?