Replacing Foolish Talk

If I’ve talked to you recently, we probably talked about the weather, the holidays, our children, or maybe tips and tricks for household tasks.

I might have told you about the latest happenings around my house, and maybe you told me about the funny thing your grandchild did last week. 

None of our conversation was bad. I’m usually not vulgar, and I’m really too prideful to be foolish.

But why didn’t I ask you what the Lord is doing in your life? Why didn’t I use the time to tell you what I have seen Him doing in the life of my church?

I am a pastor’s wife. When I am with my Christian friends, I don’t want them to think that I am entering into any kind of spiritual competition by talking about spiritual things. When I am with my non-Christian friends, I don’t want to scare them away by coming across like a televangelist.

Paul told the Ephesians: “Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.”

Thanksgiving.

It’s on all of our minds right now. We are planning the meal, reciting the history about the pilgrims and the Mayflower, and making travel plans. 

But is it on our lips? 

When we talk about the weather, our children, our households, or our churches, are we thankful? Are we replacing our foolish talk with thanksgiving?

Giving thanks is much more than simply filling in this blank: I am thankful for ________. It is recounting what the Lord has done. 

My Sunday School class recently studied David’s song of deliverance in 2 Samuel 22. It is 51 verses of recounting what the Lord has done, and we reviewed the life of David since we are wrapping up a unit on his life. 

I asked each student to tell one thing he or she is thankful for. 

They gave some great answers, but one stood out.

A chronically malnourished boy in the back didn’t hesitate. 

“Life,” he said. “I’m thankful for life.”

Scenes from his young life flashed through my mind’s eye. No hot water during winter. His mother being choked out by a boyfriend. Other children in his family being murdered.

He has faced many Goliaths.

Thanksgiving is on his lips because it is what is in his heart. Jesus lives there, so the boy chooses to be thankful for the good as well as the bad. He knows God made his life, so he is thankful.

The boy doesn’t have time to make small talk. The life expectancy for men in our community is 48 years old. He doesn’t want to waste any of his years on bitterness, complaints, or trivial pursuits. Like a young David, he is facing giants with the Lord by his side.

Because God has given him life, he wants to use his words to return thankfulness.

This Thanksgiving, I hope to do the same.