WaddaYa Talkin’ About?
“The keynote of your conversation should not be nastiness, or silliness, or flippancy, but a sense of all that we owe God.” (Ephesians 5:4 Phillips)
What are we talking about these days? Do we realize that what we talk about reflects what we’re thinking about? What we think about, what’s in “our hearts,” reveals a lot about the sort of person we are. It also tells the listener what we think of them. Something this revealing really should be examined more carefully!
How much of what we say is complimentary? How much of it is demeaning to ourselves? Does it dishonor others? Do our words expose a kind of disdain for our race in general? Have our beliefs about life and people we share it with been reduced to, “I believe I’ll have another beer!”? Is, “Whatever!” and a flip of the wrist a serious response to someone we say is important to us?
Healthy conversation comes from a deep-seated belief in the beauty and wonder of everything God has made and the intrinsic nobility of all people. When we’re with a child we’re being given the privilege of not only contributing to the shaping of a Very Important Person. We’re being taught. We’re learning what “childlikeness” – a high virtue to Jesus – looks like. When we converse with someone of the opposite gender we’re seeing another dimension of the Creator who’s made us in His own image. We’re learning wonderful things about Our Creator; how Our God thinks; how Infinite Wisdom thinks; what matters most to the Supreme Sovereign. Entering the experience of a troubled person can reveal both the nature of evil and the ways in which Goodness works when we are powerless. We really have, never, met an “ordinary” person. Nor have we lived an “ordinary” moment.
Does our conversation confirm this?
Is there anything we know or experience in any given day that is not directly or indirectly from Our Father in the Heavens all around us? At this very moment I am alive. I am breathing and there’s “user friendly” air to insure this last breath will provide my respiratory system with precisely what it needs to sustain this life I’m living. I am well. I am strong. I am thinking and writing. I’m experiencing inspiration. I am comfortable. My Wife and I and lots of other people survived a low level earthquake a while back. I could go on! And, no matter how long the list may be, little or nothing on it is fundamentally “self-made.” None of it is coincidental.
How would you expect a child to respond to all of this? I imagine it would be something along the lines of, “My Daddy loves me!” “He said so!”
“I love you,” is everywhere in the Cosmos that surrounds us!
Conversation among Children of God celebrates the love of their Father. They say “Thank You!” a lot. Gratitude and praise are the keynote of just about everything they say. You walk away from a few minutes or an entire afternoon with such people believing that you’re loved and are, yourself, a Very Important Person.
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