Use Your Words

Dadrian is learning to speak. For a 2 year old, he does remarkably well. I eagerly encourage him to, "Use your words, son." If he can slow down, and process it, he can articulate what his understanding, need, desire, or feeling is. If he is beyond this, he erupts a cacophony of sounds that are not words. There are moments where his unbridled emotion inhibits him. Whatever the emotion is, it is effusive. It all comes too fast, and he can't tame it with his tongue.

We teach our children to articulate feelings. We teach them to say, "Thank you God" as the simpleist of prayers. We teach them to communicate love, and frustration. They learn to ask for help when they need it instead of scream or fall to the floor. (Life is sometimes just too much, and falling on the floor is the preferred option) We teach them to ask questions. Somehow, they learn from watching us how to use words in their defense, or more sadly as weapons. We teach these things, and yet we forget.

I feel that we forget the basics. We forget how to use our words in they way they are intended. We say what we do not mean. We lie to ourselves or others for many reasons that in the end make little to no sense. We fall to the floor. We fail to communicate simple prayers. Desires, hopes, fears, love, appreciation, anger.... become stuffed and stifled. With that much presure, no diamonds of truth are formed. Nothing is more void than the silence that follows.

We come to points in our relationships, often when we are breaking points, that someone must say to us directly, and teach us again that what we say is valid and lifegiving. Today, we have to learn again to use our words.