Talking Hearts: Improving Communication With Others
Communication is a vital and undeniable part of managing and growing relationships. Whether we talk with words or gestures, the practice of expression and absorbing messages is built into every human exchange. We convey and receive, exchanging the sentiments that would otherwise remain buried. Though essential, communication can get convoluted when we don’t know how to engage with one another from a place of love. Speaking God’s truth, yet in love, is an important place to begin as we consider the nature of our talking hearts. Words Into Worlds Though we have freedom in Christ, we do not have a license to say whatever we please, whether we are intimately connected with them or not. We may not always recognize the power of words. Words hold the potential to speak worlds into being. God demonstrated this at Creation when the Spirit hovered above the murky deep. Instead of exclaiming and giving credence to the darkness, God exercised words of life to speak light into being, setting in motion a pattern for the world we now know. All of creation followed, unfolding and flourishing at the command of the Almighty. He created us in a similar fashion, first taking counsel with Himself to contemplate making humankind. Likewise, Adam, formed in God’s Image and by God’s own Hand, followed the Father’s example, naming the animals as part of his garden stewardship. Curiously, Adam did not exercise the power of his words to arrest the serpent who deceived him and his wife into accepting the forbidden fruit. Whether we speak or avoid declaring God’s words, we have the choice to release or suppress the power God intended for us to shift with words. Consider Christ, Our Communication Guide Thankfully, Jesus, who is often referred to as the Second Adam, didn’t just verbalize, [...]