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Use pleasant words whenever you can
All praise to the Lord Jesus the Word of God who is all wise and humble and gracious to those who seek him in spirit and in truth. Glory to the Lord God the giver of all that is eternally good and eternally enduring. Thanks be to God for sending the Holy Spirit to lead us in all truth.
As the world which is away from the truth by the Lord God above you will notice its impurity in what it speaks. The movies keep getting more and more obscene and words in them likewise. What was unacceptable about 40 years ago in the movies is passed of contemporary language these days. More worse is, when they make the children use hideous profanity on-screen. And the worldly literature or what passes off as literature, has many books and articles which contain most shallow and foul-mouthed words. And depending on the reader groups the writer’s cater to, the vile words they use can be outright rude or willfully subtle. What a fallen world indeed!
O people of the Lord God, who call yourself by the name of the Lord do not fall into the world’s slime lest you become a part of it. Stay pure for the sake of the Lord. Practice wisdom in your thoughts, words and actions, so that all people who see you give glory to the Lord, and not find an occasion to slander Jesus Christ the Son of God, on account of your bad behaviour!
Today I write about speaking words that are pleasant. This is going to be simple but effective if you put it into practice. I break it down into three things; thoughts, words and timing.
Thoughts when speaking
The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord, but gracious words are pure. (Proverbs 15:26)
What use is it to speak kind words to another when you have deceit in your heart? Have clear and pure thoughts that are presentable to the Lord God when you speak to anyone. For the Lord knows the heart of man. Many vile murderers and fraudsters have all the wrong thoughts though they may use pleasant words when luring their victims to death and loss. Be not like them all. Hate, pride, malice, jealousy, greed, deceit and the like are not the type of thoughts you should expect to be acceptable to the Lord God. And just imagine a seller, trying to be most polite to a prospective buyer, when trying to convince him to buy his house, but inwardly thinks the buyer is too dumb to buy the house. And then either by slip of tongue or by a gossiping servant of the seller the prospective buyer know the true mind of the seller. Then wouldn’t that buyer call off the deal before the sale is made? The seller may suffer losses financially and reputationally but what’s more dangerous is at the end of his or her life he is answerable to God.
So even before you speak pleasant words to others don’t have foolish motives but genuine respect and wisdom when doing so.
The words spoken
Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body. (Proverbs 16:24)
When you have the right intentions why not speak the right words as well? Have the words that are truly acceptable in the presence of the Lord God. I can suggest a few such combinations as the following but do take due diligence and time to find more such words; thank you, please can I, that’s very kind of you, have a great day/weekend, good effort etc. There are people who have the right thoughts but fumble at speaking the right kinds of words that are actually pleasant. A word of advice to such people, God knows your heart when you speak so don’t give up on your good thoughts but please by all means do surely try to improve on the pleasant words you speak. In all humility, even if you are an adult take time to go through books or articles which suggest more gracious words. Be gracious as Jesus Christ when speaking to the poor, widows and orphans etc, for Jesus, never mocked the afflicted but spoke words kind and fully consistent with his Divine calling from the Lord’ so that people received their healing in mind, body and spirit.
So even as you speak use words that are actually pleasant and consistent with the wisdom of the Word of God.
The timing of the pleasant words
A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver. Like a gold ring or an ornament of gold is a wise reprover to a listening ear. (Proverbs 25:11-12)
Doesn’t it makes sense to have the right thoughts and words when its the right time to do so, rather than the wrong time? At funerals people cry out for their deceased loves ones in deep sorrow. Indeed what grief is there especially at the death of a parent or a young baby! It’s important to express your emotions at this stage. However coming to the point, I’ve seen people speak so well of their parents, when for most part of their life, they would neglect their parents or even speak rudely to them. Such is the tragedy of life, that these very people are filled with remorse now want to talk good but the person who they are talking about is longer with them. If only such people could make that time to wish their parent’s all things pleasant while they were still alive. It’s important to speak pleasantly to your loved one’s all the time for you don’t generally know the time of life and death. And when talking to people who are not relatives be it co-workers, government staff etc be sensible and alert enough to speak pleasant words at the right time. Because people can find a person who is pleasant for the sake of it at the wrong time, very repulsive! It’s very risky to thank your manager for helping you avoid the mandatory overtime (due to your illness), in the middle of a meeting with a delegation of clients who take pleasure in dumping loads of work over to all. You can instead thank him or her when such demanding clients are totally away from you both, if you get what I mean.
So always speak kindly to your relatives and loved one’s and speak in due time to the rest, so that you are truly wise steward of the time your Lord God has given you.
Cold words and hot words and the like
Cold words freeze people, and hot words scorch them, and bitter words make them bitter, and wrathful words make them wrathful. Kind words also produce their own image on men’s souls; and a beautiful image it is. They smooth, and quiet, and comfort the hearer.
-Blaise Pascal
God gave us mouths that close
Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear. (Mark 4:9)
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’ (Revelation 2:7)
Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble. (Proverbs 21:23)
Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. (Ephesians 4:29)
Keeping to the point when talking
When it comes to trading, you never speak without a purpose. Suppose I want to sell apples I won’t talk about oranges. They buyer will directly tell me if they want it or not or if they want to bargain on the price. A simple concept to grasp.
When you want to go to Wales you won’t ask for a plane ticket to Mexico. You’d never want to waste your airfare by choosing the wrong destination at ticket counter.
With the usage of social media websites and messaging apps on the rise I notice a lot of communication going on. A lot of this communication is very counter productive. You got to keep a hold of yourself and your actual purposes for using them in the first place. Yet all this apart, most people are not yet focused when talking to each other. It’s that people hear each out with an intent to reply instead of trying to understand. As a result the miss out the actual purpose of the conversations.
A lot of arguments happen among some young couples due to both the man and the woman never keeping to the point. The man might want to go to a movie together while his wife wants to go shopping together. The main idea is that both spend some time with each other. But the man says ‘why are you ruining my plans’ and the woman says ‘don’t you care about me’. Now the man didn’t tell the main idea about going to the movie was that both of them be happy together. But when speaking he focused on ‘my plans’ which makes it look like he is only bothered about himself which is not the case. While the woman jumps to a huge conclusion without considering that her fiance never wanted to go the movie alone. The couple ends up blaming each other as they are unable to keep to the point while talking. As a result what both wanted was happiness for each other turned into a quarrel soon enough.
Suppose you go to an interview for a job, you may know a lot about the Boston Celtics but you better not talk about them. Focus on answering the actual questions you are asked by the interviewer. Maybe in a rare instance your interviewer is a basketball fan and wants to throw in a sports question to build some rapport, that’s when you might like to speak about the Celtic’s playing strategy. Still take care for you never know if the interviewer prefers the LA Lakers instead! Most interviewers would rather prefer that your answers point to how you will do your job unless of course your job is related to sports.
Now coming to the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I see lots of people going off the topic. They speak of how the Gospel makes you rich or gets you healed but they miss the main point. The main point is repent of your sins and believe in the Gospel and be reconciled to God by Jesus Christ. The Gospel is not about receiving a Western education (as most non Westerners wrongly imagine and stereotype Christians as!). The Gospel is not about having zero desires but rather its about desiring Jesus Christ. Keep it to the main point when you preach or speak about the Gospel.
And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. (1 Corinthians 2: 1-5)
Disciples of hope 