Vain Jangling November 5, 2011

I come from a family of talkers. This Mills/Burk crew can do some serious talking. Any time our family gets together for holidays, events or just because it becomes a dull roar wherever we are and tends to grow louder. We don’t even wait to talk until our turn but tend to all talk over each other which has become the running joke with those that have had the opportunity to get to know my family. This phenomenon is not just limited to when we are together either. All my life I’ve been embarrassed by my dad because wherever we are at he’ll find someone to talk to whether in a gas station, at our school or a sporting event. I’m not talking about chit chat, but he would literally tell his whole life story with strangers. My sisters and I could recite what he was saying because it happened so often. Even though my sisters make fun of my dad for this they are not much better either. When Tristen was young she was the chatty one. If you gave her the time of day that would be permission for her to talk to you about whatever her little heart   desired. Sarah my other sister has quickly taken her place as the talkative sister. I was on the phone with her the other day and an hour into the conversation she was still carrying the majority of the conversation and I had not gotten a word in edgewise.

Though I would not say I am the talker in the family I definitely have an appreciation for wordiness. My main issue with Twitter is that I only have 140 characters, while Facebook on the other hand just took away their 400 character limit which made me love Facebook that much more. While hanging out with a friend a couple days ago we began to talk about writing and then on to word choice specifically talking about the word “like” in conversation. When you start to think about what you are saying it becomes apparent how useless and meaningless certain words are that you speak over and over again. One of my professors in college would make us read our papers and highlight words that were used more than 3 times to help us pay attention to our word choice yet the worst part was when he handed back a paper and entire paragraphs would be crossed off marked with “unnecessary” written in red pen beside it.

In 1 Timothy 1, Paul is instructing Timothy on dealing with some unnecessary conversations and words going around in the church at Ephesus. There were people saying things that were irrevelant to the aim or purpose of the church which was love (vs 5). They had swerved away from that purpose into idle talk. KJV translates idle talk into vain jangling which comes down to the idea of meaningless babble. 1 Timothy 6:20-21 states, “Guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called ‘knowledge.’” Again 2 Timothy 2:16-17 says, “Avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene…” Apparently this was a big issue in the church. James talked about the power the tongue has. It has the ability to direct and steer the body. Did you know that Jesus tells us in Matthew 12:36 that we will be held accountable for every idle/careless word that we speak.

This week pay extra attention to your words and what you are talking about. Is it edifying, encouraging and exhorting? What purpose is your conversation serving? If it does not serve a purpose or it’s purpose is not promoting our charge of love coming from a pure heart and a good concience and sincere faith, cut it out. Pay attention and you’ll be surprised at what comes out of us when we do.

 

Live Life Extraordinary,

Alayna

 

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