When in a conversation with someone, about 7% of words are effective, tone of voice accounts for about 38% and non-verbal cues are about 55% effective.
Women use about 15,000 words a day, men about 5,000. People have made their living as writers, pundits, speech writers, speakers and a host of other professions that use words as their main force of communication.
If words are of such little importance in communication... what's with the obsession with what we say?
I think the older I get, the more I realize, I have over used, abused and manipulated words as tools to prop up my shallow need for recognition.
So what does God do? He puts someone in my life that does not waste his words. Quick with a kind word, slow to speak evil, and never giving an opinion that is not invited, he communicates with his heart. It's beautiful to watch.
It has taken me almost a year to finally appreciate what that means. In my own immaturity, I have always assumed strength looked like always having an answer, having a comeback, being able to give the wise word. Little did I know, it was the opposite. To be honest, I almost missed it. I almost assumed weakness for true strength, true humility. Bring me low oh Master, bring me low.
What a fool I have been. Since when did I think I was original? GK Chesterton states in the beginning of Orthodoxy that he feels foolish since he feels like a man in a row boat that thought he discovered England only to find out it was his home.
I am beginning to think that the most original phrase is the one not spoken. The most powerful statement is the one left unsaid.
How many times has someone "spoken" something into my life that I already knew? Then again, how often have I said something unnecessary that only made me look a fool?
Let me not tell you I love you, but speak it through an open heart.
Let me not speak words of wisdom, but in wisdom hold your hand.
Let me not abuse the mouth, but guard your heart through the bridling of my tongue.
Forgive a foolish heart that propped itself up at the expense of authenticity.
Forgive the insecure soul that required accolade instead of honoring truth.
Forgive the spirit soiled by a mind that did not understand.
May my favorite utterance be the one communicated from my hands.
May my treasured moments be of silence.
May your heart know my heart not by words, but by touches, by tears to match yours, smiles exchanged in joy, by purity in authenticity and may I know yours because I asked a question instead of giving an answer.
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