I Talk Too Much
This is one lesson that God has been teaching me continually this month. I actually think God wanted me to learn this lesson a long time ago but I fought Him on it for awhile. I have to come to realize that I am a verbal processor to the extreme. No matter if I am frustrated, happy, sad, excited, angry, confused- I need to talk about it with someone. Even if talking brings no solutions I still have this intense need to share what is running through my head. I know that in some ways this is a positive attribute. But, the past couple of months I have also seen the negative side of “verbal processing.” I realized that often my “processing” or “venting” would turn into gossip, even if I didn’t intend for that. I also found that by being a verbal processor I was turning to the people around me more then I was turning to God. I need to continually be finding comfort, affirmation, peace, solution, etc in God, not in people. God has showed me that words can be very powerful and I need to watch what I am saying and who I am saying it to, especially when it comes to community living. Turning to Him first is always the best choice.
Controlling my verbal processor tendencies was not the only thing that God wanted me to learn about my words this month. Another challenge came in the form of a sermon by Francis Chan, entitled “You Talk Too Much.” Honestly, this sermon was amazing- I think every person could benefit from listening to it. I could write 10 pages on it (well, at least a few more paragraphs) but I really just wanted to focus on one verse he used: “For out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks,” Matthew 12: 34b. Out of the heart the mouth speaks! Wow. That hit me pretty hard. The reason we need to tame the tongue, to watch what we say, to speak truth and encouragement over one another, etc. is because our mouth is a reflection of our heart. When I am processing, saying whatever it is I want to say to whoever, what is my heart really saying? We need to constantly be checking our hearts and our motives when we speak. This is hard work, to seriously think about what we are saying and why all the time. As I mentioned above, our words have power. We should not be using them to hurt one another, to spread negativity, to cast judgement, whether it’s on purpose or not. We need to be using them to uplift one another, to edify, to inspire each other. And this is because it all comes back to love. Are we truly loving one another as God has loved us? As He has called us to love? This has definitely been a lesson all of us here in Romania are learning this month, and probably will be lesson we all continually be learning for the rest of our lives. If you are interested in reading more thoughts on this topic check my teammate Hailee Gibson’s blog,
http://haileegibson.theworldrace.org/?filename=verbal-vomit.
Please enjoy this picutre of me in a tree in Romania. It doesn’t really have anything to do with this blog but I didn’t want this blog to go without a picture….pictures make things so much more fun.
