🎵Cliché Month: Soft as a Kitten’s Ear 🐯
Whispers, Paws, and Unexpected Comfort
There is an unmatched texture in the natural world that immediately melts away tension: the delicate, velvety warmth of a kitten’s ear. It isn’t just soft like fabric, it’s alive and pulsing with gentle warmth. Pair that with the low, rhythmic hum of a cat’s purr—a soothing frequency that scientists say closely mimics the calming auditory comfort a baby hears in utero—and your defenses don’t stand a chance.
Our feline companions have an uncanny intuition for when our hearts are tender. Years ago, I had a sweet boy who was my constant shadow. Charlie always curled tight against my side whenever I would lie down. But there was great comfort in being pinned into place while we both slept.
When liver failure took him from me, my grief sent me to bed in the early afternoon. But then something remarkable happened. As I laid down, our other cat Abbie, who had always been a bit aloof with me and attached to my husband, walked quietly into the room, hopped up, and settled into the exact spot beside me where Charlie used to rest. I mean, the exact posture and everything! It’s like she knew I needed that spot filled just exactly the way Charlie used to fill it, and she held that quiet vigil until I fell asleep. Animals simply know when to offer grace without saying a single word.
From the Dry Goods Counter to the Nursery
We often treat toughness and tenderness as opposing forces, but true strength is almost always anchored in love. When we look back at the grit of the historic night riders from yesterday’s post—like my GG Great Grandfather John Wisdom, “The Paul Revere of the South”—it’s easy to focus solely on the sheer endurance of galloping sixty-seven miles through the dark. But the driving motivation behind that ride wasn’t just cold military duty; it was personal. His mother lived in Rome Georgia, and a son’s fierce love for his mama fueled every mile of that daring journey.
That is why the old idiom “soft as a kitten’s ear” carries deeper feeling than phrases like “soft as silk” or “soft as velvet.” Before the creation of synthetic microfibers, people measured comfort against the living world around them. While high-society writers favored imported silks, everyday speech favored the warmth of the hearth; the down on a baby chick; the fleece of a lamb; and the delicate fur of a newborn kitten.
By the early-to-mid 20th century, American department stores and textile mills grabbed the phrase for their advertising. Print ads for blanket makers like Chatham and St. Marys frequently pitched virgin-wool crib blankets and layette flannels as “soft as a kitten’s ear and warm as a mother’s hug.” Copywriters knew that comparing a fabric to an animal’s ear evoked something a bolt of woven silk never could: living, breathing warmth, gentle vulnerability, and total safety.
The Courage to Remain Tender
Living in this harsh, fast-paced world tempts us to build thick walls around our hearts. After enough disappointments and griefs, it feels safer to become distant and untouchable. But God never intended for our souls to become frozen. In Ezekiel 36:26, He makes the beautiful promise to remove our hearts of stone and give us responsive, living hearts of flesh—soft, beating, and capable of deep empathy.
Ezekiel 36:26 BSB
[26] I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/ezk.36.26.BSB
It takes real spiritual courage to stay tenderhearted because it means being willing to feel deeply and to let God’s gentle peace soothe our rough edges. While we need the spiritual equivalent of the layered oak hull of Old Ironsides to navigate life’s stormy seas, we must make sure the Holy Spirit is the most important layer. Never lose the warmth within. Make your convictions firm, but keep your spirit soft as a kitten’s ear.
In closing, if I haven’t mentioned it before (or if I have) I am really getting a lot from the book Bold and Broken by David and Jason Benham. (Affiliate link included.) And there’s an older country song that carries this message beautifully called Strong Enough to Bend by Tanya Tucker…
Share this post on:
Proverbs 25: Apples of Gold
This is another of those chapters where I’ve added all sorts of colorful highlights in my Bible app. Proverbs Chapter 25 is still a collection of wisdom from Solomon and copied for publishing by the men of Hezekiah, King of Judah. The chapter starts with the verse about God hiding things and giving kings the glory to search them out. Sort of like an Easter egg hunt but with far more valuable treasure.
I find this chapter to have a more conversational tone. Rather than a list of “these types of people get these types of rewards,” it sounds like the writers are reasoning with the readers. For…
Proverbs 25:6-7 WEBUS
[6] Don’t exalt yourself in the presence of the king, or claim a place among great men; [7] for it is better that it be said to you, “Come up here,” than that you should be put lower in the presence of the prince, whom your eyes have seen.
https://bible.com/bible/206/pro.25.6-7.WEBUS
It has sensible directions like where it tells people to be careful about taking their neighbor to court if the neighbor has dirt on them he can bring to the judge and leave the accuser embarrassed. And then it becomes a bit poetic with the verse that inspired today’s image…
Proverbs 25:11 WEBUS
[11] A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.
https://bible.com/bible/206/pro.25.11.WEBUS
I had too much fun creating the image. Most versions say “settings of silver” and one says ”pictures” while another says “baskets.” I went with both the setting (bowl) and the frame (with the picture of a bowl). And then had the AI place it in something like my idea of a dream kitchen. I love the yellow gingham curtains. On a personal note, I came home from a trip one year to find that hubby had painted my kitchen walls with 2 shades of lemon yellow. The top part is more of a chiffon while the bottom is summer lemon, and I’m totally blessed by that loving gesture.
But I digress. The point of the beauty in that image is about how fitting the right words at the right time can be. The unspoken message here is to be a good listener, so you will know what words are needed most and exactly when to speak them. Since home decor means enough to people that examples of it fill magazines and TV shows, we could say the right words are like a beautiful kitchen, or whatever room means the most to us. And though I rarely read those types of magazines or watch the shows, I’ve certainly lingered on pictures of rooms with dreamy decor on sites that sell home improvement products.
And that actually leads me to a book I’ve enjoyed reading (though haven’t finished yet) called “Bold and Broken.” It’s written by identical twin brothers from a former home improvement TV series, and it’s filled with testimonies of words spoken in just the right scenarios. Again, I’ll use my Amazon link for tracking, and if you read it yourself, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
The full title is “Bold and Broken: Becoming the Bridge Between Heaven and Earth” by David and Jason Benham. Find it at Amazon at https://amzn.to/40V00GA and I recommend at least viewing the page to see some of the great encouragements in the book’s description. It does say there’s an updated version as of 2025 which might be why I couldn’t find a Kindle version on this page, but I feel better giving the link to the one I’ve actually read.
The rest of the chapter is loaded with great advice, like using patience to convince a ruler because speaking softly can break him down. Or the admonition to not stay too long in your neighbor’s house and end up with an enemy. And then we get this…
Proverbs 25:21-22 WEBUS
[21] If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat. If he is thirsty, give him water to drink; [22] for you will heap coals of fire on his head, and Yahweh will reward you.
https://bible.com/bible/206/pro.25.21-22.WEBUS
I always thought those coals of fire were a painful thing, but apparently they are a warm thing. This is literally saying to do good for the needs of your enemy, and God Himself will reward you. This is not always easy, but it’s a good word anyway. And it’s a good place to wrap this up.
Share this post on:
My Latest Flickr Photos
Others’ Posts I’ve Liked
Crystal Writes A Blog 