The last few weeks in my life and the life of our family has been filled with important conversations.  Whether in the context of the Fred Rogers Conference (which Jessica and I had the honor of attending from the 16th to the 18th of this month), or informally as we gathered as a family afterward in the Payson Arizona woodlands for our vacation.  Words are so important to our life in this world...and to to our spiritual life.  

Carefully considered and chosen words convey love.  That is their purpose.  As I was considering these things I was delighted to encounter a 1968 New Church Life article on the same from the Rev. Doug Taylor.  May it inspire in us a renewed effort to choose our words from use and for the sake of their use. 

Love and Peace,

Ethan 

OUR WORDS

Words are never empty; they contain thoughts, and the thoughts contain affections or feelings that belong to our love. Our love expresses itself in the form of thoughts, and these express themselves in the form of words. 

So in every word that comes out of our lips there is contained, and revealed, something of our love, whether good or evil. We reveal more about ourselves than perhaps we realize by what we say about other people and how we say it. This is why the Lord said:  “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good one out of the good treasure of the heart brings forth good things; and an evil one out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things."  (Matthew 12: 34, 35).

What we love is always contained in what we say, and in the other life…when our interiors come forth to view…the reason or purpose or motive behind our words will become quite manifest. If a person has loved the Lord and the neighbor, this will become clear; it will be seen that their words were words of use, looking to a good end, that they habitually intended what was good for the neighbor, in what they said. 

But if a person has loved themselves and the world [more], this also will be manifested. It will be seen that their words were not words of use. They were not looking to the accomplishment of some good end in what [they were] saying; their words were idle and the product of self-indulgence.  Words that took away but gave back nothing good.

The great point to bear in mind then is that conversation is not an end in itself; it is always looking to some end or other that is loved. Whether we realize it or not, we are always trying to prove something in what we say; words are never vain or empty, even in apparently idle chatter. 

There is always some love or other that is speaking. What the Lord requires of us is that it be a good love-a love that looks to some good use!