Food for Thought: Dialects

I promised you a food-for-thought this week, so I think I will go ahead and work it out.

This food-for-thought has to do with a strange topic: dialects.

Sometime in early January, I came across an interesting verse of scripture that caught my attention and has stayed on my mind.

Why? Because it hits very close to home in an area that I work on.

I am especially interested in the sentence in red.

Ephesians 5:4 (MESSAGE) Though some tongues just love the taste of gossip, those who follow Jesus have better uses for language than that. Don't talk dirty or silly. That kind of talk doesn't fit our style. Thanksgiving is our dialect.

Hmmm...

Thanksgiving is our dialect.

Dialect.

I've been chewing on that verse for awhile, like a piece of chewing gum, trying to get all I can out of it.

I, not being the most learned individual, had to go look up this word dialect.

In linguistics, it means a variety of a language that is distinguished from other varieties of the same language by features of phonology, grammar, and vocabulary, and by its use by a group of speakers who are set off from others geographically or socially.

So, looking at the definition, I can conceivably, make an interesting substitution.

Thanksgiving is a variety of a language that is distinguished from other varieties of the same language by features of phonology, grammar, and vocabulary, and by its use by a group of speakers who are set off from others geographically or socially.

That is pretty insightful. Well, to me.

Because that verse describes different variations of language.

Gossipy talk. Dirty talk. Silly talk. And Thanksgiving talk.

And it says those that follow Jesus have better uses for language than talking silly, talking dirty, or gossiping. Much better uses for language than that.

But I'm going to be straight up. The folks I know who are hard gossipers, talk dirty and talk silly, are mostly Christian folks... these followers of Jesus, as they are referred to in the verse.

And if you are like me, some of them, well, I will hesitate to lay my purse down around. Doggone wallet may get stolen. Shoot.

I have had atheists that have been better for my life and personal growth than some Christians. Ought not be that way, but it is. That is a whole nother post altogether.

But let's get back to the post topic at hand. I was a mite bit concerned over the whole notion of "silly talk". Exactly what does this "silly talk" mean?

I think it means different things for different people. And as I was working on parts of this posts this Sunday, while watching my church services on the internet (I rarely go to church on Sundays. I am a Friday night gal #heathen) an interesting subject came up, and for me, in my own life, it defined the whole notion of "silly talk".

Complaining.

You have to admit, Complaining is cousin to Ungrateful, which is the direct opposite of Gratitude and Thanksgiving.

I jotted down some interesting church notes that Sunday morning... Wrote it all down, here it goes:

When things don't seem to be going our way, we complain. And we may holler "it's the truth!", but whether it's the truth or not, it is still what it is: "complaining".

Complaining short circuits our faith.

Complaining indirectly communicates to God: "I don't like what You are doing in my life, and if I were You (that is, if I had control) i would do it differently."

God hates complaining, and it is nothing more than irreverence. It is insubordination to God's authority.

Complaining.... sure is some silly talk, isn't it?

And it gets nothing done.

I heard another interesting definition of complaining recently: Complaining is talking about the problem, without talking about the solution to the problem.

Hmm.

I am not a dirty talker. I get a check in my spirit any time I cuss, and I work on that. I'm not a gossiper. I've cut that way down close to zero, and think hard about it when i do it... and make the corrections. I've gotten to the point where I don't too much deal with gossipy folk unless I really have to. You know my issues with gossip: it means I don't like my life, so I gotta get nosy about YOUR life so I can find something about you to talk about... so I can feel better about my own mess.

Hmm. Just my definition of it. Not my dialect. Besides, I like my life, with all its good parts and bad parts that are getting better.

I tell you one thing, though. I complain like others. Mostly due to what or who I around. I was speaking with a coworker the other day about this. I admired the fact that she recognizes that she complains and she's going to work on it.

I don't want this silly talk... this "complaining", to be my dialect either.

I want thanksgiving to be my dialect. I want to be able to hear my own voice and speech, and be able to tell for myself that I, LadyLee, am a thankful person.

I do believe that there is no coincidence that thanksgiving is mentioned in that verse, and is something to be strived for.

Much sprouts out up of gossiping, doesn't it? Much comes out of dirty talk and silly talk also.

Can't the same be said for thanksgiving?

Something good comes out of being thankful, being a person of gratitude.

This has become a part of my daily confessions, these 4 simple words.

Thanksgiving is MY dialect.

It is the language that I speak.

I hope to look up someday, and see that that is wholly true, that it has come to pass in my life.

I will leave you with 2 other scripture that go well with that above.

Phillipians 2:14 (AMP) Do all things without grumbling and faultfinding and complaining [against God] and questioning and doubting [among yourselves], That you may show yourselves to be blameless and guiltless, innocent and uncontaminated, children of God without blemish (faultless, unrebukable) in the midst of a crooked and wicked generation [spiritually perverted and perverse], among whom you are seen as bright lights (stars or beacons shining out clearly) in the [dark] world...

I Thessalonians 5:18 (AMP)Thank [God] in everything [no matter what the circumstances may be, be thankful and give thanks], for this is the will of God for you [who are] in Christ Jesus [the Revealer and Mediator of that will].

This Food for thought has been brought to you by your Friednly Neighborhood Oldgirl...

LadyLee

Enjoy the rest of your week!