Welcome to Part 3 of the “30 Days of Prayer” series, which is going to focus on the world around you.
Today, we are going to talk about praying over our communications. I’ve never been great at one-on-one conversations. I really enjoy writing, and I think the reason I feel so comfortable doing it here is because of the ‘BACKSPACE’ button!
If only, when we were talking to each other, there was a backspace button!
I find myself frequently changing the way I write things before I finally hit the “publish” button here on the blog. I wish that I had that much time to think over everything that comes out of my mouth. Does that sound familiar to anyone else?
Day 17- Praying over our communication with others
Today’s prayer focus is about communication with the world around us. That includes our friends and family, coworkers, and the people we meet in our daily lives. I’d also like to talk a little about communicating with others online.
We all choose our words a little more carefully when we are out in public, or when we meet new people. In our relationships with our family and friends, it seems that we don’t take the same time to think about our words quite as much.
Familiarity makes us speak just a little too quickly, which can make us stumble.
If we make a point to ask God to help us with our words, we will begin to see changes in how we speak to each other. When we bring God into the picture, it can help us to see things from the other person’s perspective and communicate better.
In Ephesians, the Bible says:
“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”¹ Ephesians 4:29
There are many other scriptures throughout the Bible that deal with the things we say. Speech is the most important way we communicate with those around us, so we should be careful to take it seriously. We should pray that God helps us to know when to quiet our mouths. When we are having sensitive discussions, we can ask Him to help us choose our words wisely, and we can also ask that He helps us to know how to approach conversations with others.
In the first years of social media, I often looked at an old post or even an email and wished I could do it over again. I don’t remember anything I said being mean or outright rude, but sometimes things just didn’t communicate exactly what was originally in my mind. I guess it’s just easy to forget who your audience is. I have learned my lesson the hard way a couple of times.
Digital media has forever changed the way that we communicate and sometimes things we write look different than we intend them too. Most of us don’t plan to offend or hurt the feelings of those we care about so much. Sometimes, when we are trying to talk about something that is important to us, we can choose words poorly or use the wrong ‘tone of voice’.
It seems that things we feel passionate about can make us say things a little too harshly on occasion. Often, it’s easy to forget who is seeing what we’re writing!
We shouldn’t have to be ashamed of how we feel about things, but we can be aware of how the sharing of our viewpoint comes across to the people around us.
I realize more and more everyday that the people I meet have very different backgrounds. What may be a normal conversation in your childhood home may seem very different to people around you. We all get used to talking a certain way when we are with the people we’re close to, but we sometimes don’t realize that our words sound differently to those who don’t know our hearts.
In Paul’s letter to the Colossians, he instructs the church in the way they should behave. He explains to them how to speak to people around them:
“Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.”¹ Col 4:6
We must begin to realize that the people we come in contact with each day come from a wide range of upbringings, cultural backgrounds and family situations. They are sensitive to things that maybe we aren’t. Everyone has a little different angle they see things from. I see things from the perspective of a woman, a wife, sister and daughter, a parent, a Midwesterner, a Christian, and an employee. That changes how I see things. We usually can’t really help theses perceptions, but we can be aware of them.
If we are mindful when we speak, we’re less likely to end up sitting somewhere with our foot in our mouth, wishing we would have spoken a little slower.
Finally, the more we pray, the more we begin to change our heart all the way around, and that in itself changes the way we respond to each other.
Hopefully, when we are praying for ourselves and our loved ones, we begin to feel more of God’s love, and we start to feel more at peace with the world around us. This feeling will begin to translate into a new kind of communication. How we speak to others really changes the way they feel when they are around us as well, and that can make a world of difference in the way our conversations go.
God,
I ask today that you help me to learn how to better communicate with those around me. I ask that you remind me to speak slowly so that I can think about the things I am trying to say. I pray that, in my conversations today, you guide what is said, and allow me to listen before I speak. Please help me not to hurt my loved ones with my words. I know that there have been times in the past when I have not been careful with my words, and I ask you for forgiveness in this area. I pray that I can learn how to be more gracious in my relationships, so that my communication is much more effective. Thank you for your grace.
Amen
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¹Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
