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Over the past week we’ve be pondering the following questions as related to Praiseworthy Speech…

1. How does this project find warrant in the life and ministry of Jesus?
2. How does this project find warrant in his death and resurrection?

Each of us wrote a one-page reflection paper and shared them with each other. Over the next few days, some of us may post our essays so you can get in on the fun as well.

For the first question, we reflected on Jesus’ life here on earth. How did he use speech? For what purpose? What did he say about speech and communication in his teachings? How did he exemplify such speech in his life? … a tak dále.

Second, we meditated on Jesus’ death and resurrection, including his actual words during his time of trial, crucifixion, and resurrection. And furthermore, we thought about the way of the cross—giving self, sacrificing self, emptying self—and how this cruciform lifestyle should affect our communication with others.

As we talk together about praiseworthy speech, it’s amazing to see how God teaches us wonderful things through each of our very unique personalities. We’d love to learn from you as well, so feel free to comment.

Many blessings in your meditations and speech.

From a paper I write a couple years ago in a class at ACU named Narrative Evangelism:

“[As we] find in virtually every form of communication, words have the nasty ability to undermine stability: they can deceive, they can twist, and they can generate half-truths that appear as not totally false and yet completely de-center our convictions.   Christian speech creates safeguards against such mishandling by communicating through words of trust that begin to contour a different set of values.  Christian speech means to tell the truth, a truth that strums even the hardest to reach strand of emotion and softens even the hardest heart, for deep down we all hunger for something real.  We long for something we can hold onto that won’t fail or disappear beneath the glitter of advertising.  This truth of Jesus is the melody of our message, and it is simple yet beautiful, for we have nothing to gain by dressing it up with empty accoutrements.  And the construction of that message can take an infinite number of forms, for part of the way we use our language is not just to create a new world but to utter it into existence, to breathe into it a common linguistic reality that expresses itself through conversation, narrative, figurative language, folk tales, and humor.  If we glance over the Gospel writings, the potency of Jesus’ parables and teachings lay not only in the radical, otherworldly import of his words but also in the referential vehicles by which he made them known.  He spoke to people in a language they could understand, borrowing the recognizable images and objects of their perceived reality in order to give farming conventions, sociocultural biases, and business relationships a tangible root coupled with salvific resonance.  The gospel acquired meaning because it pivoted on things that had certain meaning beforehand and invested them with something new.

When the Jewish man approached Jesus and asked him which commandment was the greatest, Jesus’ reply was both orthodox and revolutionary.  By exhorting the man to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” and “love your neighbor as yourself” he gave the man a new moral and ethical standpoint for imagining the rest of his world.  Though conventional (from a Deuteronomistic point of view), its delivery amidst the radical claims of Jesus gave to him a whole new significance for living, a whole new lens for seeing and taking part in his world.  We carry this same responsibility, but also this same privilege of remaking the standard modes of speech.  Though we notoriously underestimate ourselves, we, too, have been blessed with the gospel imagination and have the creative capacity to retell the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus with every word that proceeds from our mouths.  We possess the special ability to recalibrate the metaphors, images, and stories of this life to map out the terrain of the coming Kingdom.  But this should be nothing new for us, for we, too, were once blind but can now see the reality that God sees, shaken up and put back together in light of salvation.”

Graham

Psalm 19:14 – “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.”

I desire to have the words coming out of my mouth be more uplifting, encouraging, and loving towards others and more pleasing in God’s sight. I commit to making the meditations of my heart more pleasing before God and better focused on Godly and praiseworthy things.

Proverbs 16: 23-24 – “A wise man’s heart guides his mouth, and his lips promote instruction. Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.”

Matthew 12: 34-37 – “For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

1 Peter 1:14 “As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as He who called you is Holy, so be Holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be Holy because I am Holy’.”

I also commit to trying to improve my body language towards others. Not only do I want the things overflowing out of my heart and coming out of my mouth to be praiseworthy things, I want my actions to be in accordance with those things. I want to confirm what is truly on my heart and out of my mouth by how my body responds with each.

“When we connect with a person, we also have to make it clear to each other how the content of a spoken message needs to be interpreted. How we do this says something about the relationship we have with the other person…often words are inadequate for this purpose. To make the meaning of our words clear we use body language.” – Frank van Marwijk

I do not want to think on myself as wise or worthy of great praise, or to meditate in my heart about how good or worthy of praise I am. I do not want to think on what I do or do not deserve from others. I do not want to dwell on what is fair and what is unfair in regards to me and my life. I do not believe these things are praiseworthy in God’s sight.

Proverbs 26: 12 “Do you see a wise man in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.”

Proverbs 27: 2 “Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; someone else, and not your own lips.”

Ephesians 4: 1-3 “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”

I also commit to reading the emails, blog sites, and reading assignments and to doing the written assignments that will come with this project over the next 3 months. I commit to giving much thought to them and working to implement changes in my life due to them. I want to be able to look back over this time and to know I worked hard to learn from it and to learn from others. I look forward to us having the opportunity to learn even more about each other and to be more open with one another. Lastly, I commit to praying for this project, for every one of us as we work through this project together, and for the people around us who are affected by what we say and do every day. I pray we are more and more pleasing in God’s sight in all we say and do!

I. OVERVIEW OF PLEDGE

As with any endeavor that is aimed toward improving the current state, a holistic evaluation must be made prior to action to ensure that the changes that are to be made indeed result in progress, including those in the areas that are broke, failing, satisfactory, or perfectly functional. What should result from an assessment such as this is a rapid overhaul in the areas that need the most improvement, and a refinement and continuation in the areas that are acceptable. So, with this in mind, the following is a breakdown of the areas that I have determined that need either improvement or continual growth. As a result of this breakdown, listed below are my actions that I pledge to enact to improve in these areas.

II. EVIDENT AREAS OF IMPROVEMENT

§ Honesty & Truthfulness of Speech

§ Complaining

§ Attentive Listening & Concentration

§ Idle Speech

§ Pure & Holy Thoughts

§ Coarse Joking

§ Unwholesome Talk

§ Self-Centered Speech

III. EVIDENT AREAS THAT ARE ACCEPTABLE

§ Complimentary Nature

§ Comforting Speech

§ Speech that Leads to Others Feeling Welcome

§ Body Language that Exudes Happiness

§ Attentive to Others’ Situations & Feelings

IV. PLEDGES IN EVIDENT AREAS OF IMPROVEMENT

§ Honesty & Truthfulness of Speech – I pledge to think more about the words that come out of my mouth, and assess before the words are even uttered if they are honest and truthful. If they are not, I will not speak them. I want to also work on making my “yes” be “yes”, and my “no” be “no”.

§ Complaining – I pledge to complain far less than what I have been doing, and start focusing on seeing and focusing on the good in situations where I feel that complaining is in order.

§ Attentive Listening & Concentration – I pledge to be a better listener, both in body language and listening. I will try to make eye contact as much as possible with the one who is speaking, and focus on the words that are coming out of their mouths. In the area of concentration, I pledge to try my best to stay focused on the task at hand so that others see my concentration as praiseworthy.

§ Idle Speech – I pledge to focus on ensuring my words have meaning and importance behind them, instead of spouting out meaningless chatter to fill the time.

§ Pure & Holy Thoughts – I pledge to reorient with the best of my abilities how I think about situations and people, and more specifically focus on trying to think of them as God would. I pledge to see all people as His creation.

§ Coarse Joking – I pledge to abstain from coarse joking and statements that are “on the edge”.

§ Unwholesome Talk – I pledge to make my speech more wholesome by being more attentive to speaking the truth in the love, and evaluating my words before they are spoken to see if in fact my words are loving and truthful.

§ Self-Centered Speech – I pledge to try to make conversations less about me and my situations, and try to focus on questioning and responding to others to make less one-sided conversations.

V. EVIDENT AREAS THAT ARE ACCEPTABLE

§ Complimentary Nature – I pledge to continue being complimentary to others and genuinely let them know that I care and love them, as well as I pledge to look for other ways that I can improve being complimentary in my words and actions.

§ Peaceful Speech – I, through both verbal and non-verbal ways, pledge to continue to try to bring peace and resolution to situations where conflict arises, and I pledge to see how certain areas of my peaceful speech need to be improved upon.

§ Speech that Leads to Others Feeling Welcome – I, through both verbal and non-verbal ways, pledge to continue making others feel welcome, and I pledge to improve on how I view situations where others want to be a part of something that I might not want them to be there.

§ Body Language that Exudes Energy– I pledge that I will continue to focus on bringing energy to situations, and I pledge to continue to look for ways in which I can share more of my energy with others.

§ Attentive to Others’ Situations & Feelings – I pledge to remain attentive to others’ situations and feelings, and as a result of this, act in ways that I feel are necessary to let them know that I am there for them. I also pledge that I will try to be more aware of how others are acting or reacting, and assist in any way that I can.

VI. STATEMENT OF RESPONSIBILITY AND SIGNATURE

I, Corey Keen, understand the weight of the pledges that are included in this document as well as the ramifications of breaking these pledges during this time of commitment. By making these commitments, I open myself up to corrective statements and rebuke from my fellow team members, family, and friends, and know that I must respond accordingly to their statements in an effort to improve in my praiseworthy speech. I also know that it is ultimately up to me to ensure that I improve in my praiseworthy speech, and the blame cannot be put on anyone else but me.

Signed by Corey Keen on February 17, 2008

“For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks” Matthew 12:34

When we have love in our hearts, our words are kind and gentle; they build up and encourage. Humble hearts speak about what is best for others and willingly admit and apologize for being wrong. Patient hearts are slow to respond to moments of stress, and God-honoring hearts look for opportunities to give God the glory and praise for all He has done. You can tell a lot about a person by what they say—and what they don’t say.But it’s not just good hearts that show up in our words. Unfortunately for most of us, our words often reveal the dark side of our hearts as well. As James 3:10 tells us, “Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing.” Proud hearts love to boast about accomplishments and are willing to use words to put others down to lift ourselves up. Angry hearts vent through our mouths, and fearful hearts often lash out verbally for self-protection and defense. Self-centered hearts turn conversations back toward us. And when your heart feels slighted, you will find that murmuring and complaining are on the tip of your tongue.

Next time you speak, listen to your words—they are telling on your heart! And if you don’t like the kind of secrets that your words are giving away, then listen to what you’ve said so that you can know what needs to be fixed on the inside. And fixing the inside may just mean that you turn over the control of your heart to the Holy Spirit. When you do that, pride, anger, fear, self-centeredness, bitterness, and all the other demons of your haunted heart will be chased away by the love, joy, peace, and patience that only the Spirit can bring (Galatians 5:22-23).

Pay attention to the words that get you into trouble, and you’ll be able to identify and deal with the sin that is at the heart of the matter. After all, all talk is heart talk.

Interestingly, our tongues also speak a lot about the state of our spiritual health, and Scripture is voluminous on the subject, repeatedly establishing the relationship between the heart and the tongue, and showing how the condition of one reflects the condition of the other. When speaking to the religious leaders of his time, this is what Jesus, himself, had to say:

It is by our words that we will be judged. Unfortunately, most of us don’t realize this basic truth, and use our tongues carelessly; unmindful or uncaring of what we say. We engage in excessive chatter, gossip, slander, flattery, lies and dozens of other sins of our tongues, jeopardizing our very salvation and making a farce of our religiousness. James, in his letter to the Jewish Christians living outside Palestine, warns:

If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. (James 1:26)

by Aneel Aranha

Here’s my commitment to praiseworthy speech over the next three months…

We live in a world plagued by destructive speech. But as a child of God, a coworker with the Self-emptying One in revealing his kingdom, practicing praiseworthy speech will mean seeking to use words as words are intended to be used—to create, to give life, to speak truth—but not only words, other forms of communication as well, such as tone, facial expression, body language, silence.

Praising God. This will start in relationship with God, daily spending time with him in prayer and his word. My prayers will be full of praise and thanks for his goodness and blessing. But beyond this I will also seek to be completely truthful with God, sharing my feelings, frustrations, and needs. Being a person of praiseworthy speech will also mean seeking truth and good news in the Scriptures, planting what I find there in my heart and sharing it with others.

Loving Self. It would be unwise to seek to speak truthful, life-giving words to others without giving myself the same treatment—taming not only my physical tongue but also the voice in my head, which sadly spews untruth from a false self resisting its rightful death. For what is false cannot endure; the truth must set my true self free. Therefore, I will seek to build myself up, to stop the destructive lies in my head and in the world from ever entering my heart, to fill my soul with the truth of God’s love for me and my divine identity in him.

Blessing Others. Not only will this project mean filtering what I hear on my behalf, but also for the sake of others. I want to empty myself and give my full attention to others, being a praiseworthy listener, a person who when in conversation with others notices the way they speak about themselves (or others), helping them to notice when what they are saying does not reflect the truth of their identity and self-worth as persons created in God’s image, persons for whom Jesus laid down his life, persons meant to be temples of God’s Spirit.

I also want to be a non-dominating and open listener, one who is quick to listen and slow to speak, one who takes what others say seriously, one willing to engage in true dialogue—open to reconsidering his own opinions and beliefs in light of new insights.

In addition to this posture of listening, I want to be a praiseworthy communicator by using words—spoken and written—and gestures to praise others, to encourage others, to thank others, to remind others of their worth, to erase the lies they hear from themselves and the world, to share God’s love and my love with them. I will furthermore seek to tame my tongue, to refrain from hurtful, impure, and judgmental (racist, sexist) speech and avoid complaining and arguing.

But as a person of truth, I will not merely say what I think people want to hear. Dying to my fears, I will boldly and sincerely strive to say what needs to be said. Following the example of my Savior, I will not limit myself to using words to make people feel good but also to make them think, to reflect on their lives and their relationships with God, others, and creation, in order that they might be transformed. These words may sting, but for the purpose of giving new, resurrection life.

Finally, praiseworthy speech will mean being more outspoken in the way I speak of events in my life, the lives of others, and the world—it will mean interpreting all things in light of God’s story of ongoing creation and redemption. Seasoning my speech with praise for his beauty, power, goodness, justice, mercy, and love, I will invite others to make his story their own, joining in the universe’s praise of its Creator.

So God created human beings in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27

Some of us aren’t even aware that we talk negatively to ourselves. Take some time today to think about what you say to yourself.

The words that you use and the conversations you have with yourself create things in you. They can create positive things or negative things. It is our choice. The tongue has the power of life and death. This is why it is so important to be diligent in using the power of the tongue to create a positive force in our lives.

Chris Widener

Or take ships for example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. James 3:4-5

The words of our mouth have control over our lives, whether we like it or not, or whether we believe it or not. What comes out of our mouth will determine our future. As a rudder controls the direction of a ship, your tongue controls the direction of your life. God made man to be a steward not only over the earth but over his own mouth as well. We are our own prophets. What we say today impacts our tomorrow. David Holt Boshart, Jr.