So Many Words

As a writer, and as a human who relishes the beauty and capability of language, I’m troubled over the incessant and frivolous prattle and sputter of words as practiced in our culture. And, if this is a routine concern, weeks like these do nothing to alleviate.

Language was a gift from our Creator. Like fire and fruit, it was given to us at our very beginning to meet our needs. It enables us to communicate our love, ambition, dreams, and delights. And this is how it was used.

This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh!  She will be called ‘woman,’  because she was taken from ‘man.’

Until it wasn’t.

Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?

At this first interaction with the Deceiver we learned how to misuse language to blame, demean, control, and cancel.

It was the woman You gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.

If I have one hope for America, it is this. May we reclaim our language. May we value hearing words over producing them. May we use language to enhance, engage, and encourage. May we favor dialogue over monologue. May we begin again to delight in words.

 

[Quotes of Genesis from the New Living Translation. Italics and capitalization added. For Further Reading: Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies by Marilyn McEntyre.]