How Rich Are Your Words?
From Ephesians 5 – 18 And do not be drunk with wine, which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord, 20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Betty Hart reports a striking disparity in Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children. Half of working-class parents' interactions with their 12 to 18 month old's were affirming. 80% of those interactions from affluent parents were affirming, and only 20% for children whose parents were in poverty.
I'm not sure the distinction stops with age, or parenting, although it is particularly sobering in that context. When we see ourselves as deprived, feel pressed that more is expected of us than we have the resources to give, our speech will reflect it. Our treatment of others, in turn, will reflect how we believe life is treating us.
So it is, perhaps, that Paul tells the Ephesian church in that epistle's this chapter to decide in advance from what well to draw their speech. The WHAT is Psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, rather than reactive overflow. Either way, Scripture says, out of the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks. Our charge, and our privilege, is to so fill our hearts with preset phrasing from the right perspective that this is what comes out in our interactions.
The WHY is also clear from Paul's framing of interactive speech, and perhaps also revealing of the connection to Hart. We speak or sing, Paul says, in order to give thanks to God the Father for His blessings through our Lord Jesus Christ. Any verbiage which begins with that assumption has the accent of affluence to it. We are rich because for our sakes Christ became poor.
Whatever He asks of us, whomever He uses gruffly to ask, He has already provided. The Scripture says so. The hymns say so. The spiritual songs on the radio or bouncing around our heads say so. Life's serial withdrawals don't even touch the compounding interest on the Treasurer of His invulnerable investment in us.
Betty Hart reports a striking disparity in Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children. Half of working-class parents' interactions with their 12 to 18 month old's were affirming. 80% of those interactions from affluent parents were affirming, and only 20% for children whose parents were in poverty.
I'm not sure the distinction stops with age, or parenting, although it is particularly sobering in that context. When we see ourselves as deprived, feel pressed that more is expected of us than we have the resources to give, our speech will reflect it. Our treatment of others, in turn, will reflect how we believe life is treating us.
So it is, perhaps, that Paul tells the Ephesian church in that epistle's this chapter to decide in advance from what well to draw their speech. The WHAT is Psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, rather than reactive overflow. Either way, Scripture says, out of the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks. Our charge, and our privilege, is to so fill our hearts with preset phrasing from the right perspective that this is what comes out in our interactions.
The WHY is also clear from Paul's framing of interactive speech, and perhaps also revealing of the connection to Hart. We speak or sing, Paul says, in order to give thanks to God the Father for His blessings through our Lord Jesus Christ. Any verbiage which begins with that assumption has the accent of affluence to it. We are rich because for our sakes Christ became poor.
Whatever He asks of us, whomever He uses gruffly to ask, He has already provided. The Scripture says so. The hymns say so. The spiritual songs on the radio or bouncing around our heads say so. Life's serial withdrawals don't even touch the compounding interest on the Treasurer of His invulnerable investment in us.
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