Being Careful With My Words

If you know me at all, you know I'm a stickler with words.  Like nails on a chalkboard is how I hear grammatically incorrect sentences or mispronunciations.  I must say, I come by my appreciation of all things language from my mom.

However, recently my friend noted in a teasing and loving way, that I am a bit of a word-Nazi (not her phrase). So when the reply to "How are you doing?" comes back as "Good," I am learning to let it go!  That might sound small-time to you, but I was an English-major, and like the classically anal teacher, I struggle not to go apoplectic at the slightest miss!  However, I am learning that I am not the world's self-assigned educator.  If my piddly corrections are at all divisive, even only ever-so-slightly offensive, or less, the object of a joke, I want to be careful for the sake of others.

In our home, though, we do verbally correct and replace "what" with "pardon," "no" with "no thank you," "good" with "well" (when appropriate), etc.  It's our job to teach our kids...literally, as much as we possibly can. So what's the deal with getting it right?!?  Because God is a God of order. He has chosen to communicate with us through His Word and through The WORD- which became flesh. He didn't do so flippantly, but precisely and with deliberation, so that every word that is written down is flawless. We don't have to question the interpretations because He ALWAYS says what He means. And so it should be with us. When we understand the many nuances of words and we try to accurately reflect our hearts, things can go better for us and to His great glory. When we think to say what we mean, we can more easily discern if what we mean is sinful, if it will tear down or build up, be in or out of season, and be something God wants us to speak at all.

The Bible has MUCH to say about our words-- though it deals more with the content of our words than the structure of them.  Paul Tripp notes that "Words are powerful, important, significant.  It was meant to be that way.  When we speak, it must be with the realization that God has given our words significance.  He has ordained for them to be important.  Words were significant at Creation and at the Fall.  They are significant to redemption.  God has given words value...the only reason we understand anything is that He has spoken...Every word we speak must be up to God's standard and according to His design" (War of Words 7, 15).  Words should be chosen carefully and in a way that reflects Galatians 5:22-23.

I won't die on the hill of Getting-It-Grammatically-Right (although I want to:).  But I will say that since our content is important, so should our construct.  They aren't EQUALLY important, by any means.  Still, we should be careful not to be caught in the verbal web of "that's not what I meant!"  If you know how to say it, then you know how to say what you mean, and then you can be better understood and your words will be truthful.  Words don't have innate power, rather God uses words in a powerful way.  And while those words should as much as possible be accurately spoken, it is within the customary workings of God to use the foolish things of the world to confound the wise (1 Corinthians 1:27). I think of Shimei and his not-so-well chosen words as he cursed David on his way out of Jerusalem.  Yet, David, in the grandeur of his kingship, listened.  As believers, it is our duty to listen without partiality.  And when wanting our message heard, we ought to have more prudence than prattling.  The message validates the messenger and not the reverse, as one of our pastors recently noted in a Sunday school class.

The other day, I was thinking and almost audibly said: God, you were so good to me in that.  And however true that was, the problem was my context-- which indicated that God is potentially LESS good in other situations than that one.  And is THAT true?  Certainly not!  God is ALWAYS good to me...whether I lay dying on a hospital bed, or delivered from that death.  His goodness has nothing to do with my circumstances. And why was it important for me to say it accurately?  Because then I might recognize the tiniest crack in my doctrine which informs my thinking which informs my emotions.  God is good ALL THE TIME.  In that isolated situation, in expressing my inaccurate thought, I was not expressing inaccuracy in my own heart.  But still, my audience, which is composed mostly of little people, may well think that God is only good when we think He is, because their earthly leader indicated such.  So my change: God is ALWAYS good, and the time of that (special blessing) really reminded me of that!

Some might balk and think I'm tripping all over myself over the slightest things-- making a mountain out of the proverbial molehill.  But remember, your words aren't spoken in a vacuum.  What you say has great (and probably unbeknownst to us) reverberations in the lives of others (yes, we ALL have a sphere of influence), so say it well!

"But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment."  Matthew 1236