Guide to Churchese #1: “Bless Her/His Heart”

Bless Her/His Heart – 1. Trash talk nullification phrase. This is almost always uttered after a negative observation about someone else in order to confuse the listener into believing the speaker is in fact, being kind.  Examples: “She smells like feet, bless her heart.” “He is dumber than  a dumpling dipped in stupid sauce, bless his heart.” 2. This phrase allows the speaker to turn any negative feature someone else possesses into a positive feature for the speaker. This is accomplished by a) observing truth (rather than a lie, which would be a violation of the ninth commandment), b) recognizing a feature which might potentially require intervention or help by a wiser person, such as the speaker, and c) implying without stating that the person is loved in spite of their shortcomings, which is what the Lord Jesus did for us, after all.