What?

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Psalm 19:14

Recently I had a conversation with someone about communication and how abbreviated our language has become.  Are we really communicating?  Do we understand what the other person is really saying?

It reminds me of a posting on Facebook, where the son was telling a story about his mother and learning to use modern abbreviations on text messages. She saw several people using lol.  Upon someone announcing the death of a family member, she responded with lol.  Her son said, "Mom, how rude!" The mother responding to her son said “why, I just responded with lol meaning lots of love.”  Her son said, “Mom it means Laughing Out Loud!”  How many times have you seen a response from someone and said: I wonder what that means? I usually goggle it to see what it means, I can’t keep up with all the new ones. There are several I don’t want to know what they mean or would ever use. 

Upon my first day at a postal distribution center, I was instructed by the supervisor to go help unload the scf from the bmc on to the 1070’s.  He was pointing to a direction which helped but the rest was unclear except that I was to unload something on to something. I responded with I am happy to do that; but I have no idea what you just said. He was a supervisor that spoke abbreviations for just about everything, and soon I understood what he was talking about, but it meant a lot of questions.  

Many conversation workshops tell you to listen, repeat what the person said, then ask for clarification to make sure you understood what they are actually saying. In my recent part-time work, I had a co-worker say something to me, I looked at them and said I am sorry I do not know what you said. They repeated it, and I still didn’t know what they said. It finally came down to someone else interpreting for us. We were both speaking English, but neither knew what the other was relaying. 

Emojis are another form of communication that leaves a lot to the interpretation of the person using it and the person receiving it. Is that smiley face crying a good thing or bad? Is it not bad enough we don’t all speak the same language, or have the same dialect but now we use pictures and abbreviations!   

Have you ever read the Bible and thought, I wonder what this is really saying to me? Or had someone tell you their interpretation of that passage. Thank goodness it is not all just pictures, abbreviations and emojis. Thank goodness we have a church where we can gather and learn of the meaning of the words in the Bible. Pastors to teach us what the Bible is saying to us. A place that we can gather and worship God in a better understanding. A place where we work at understanding each other and expressing our thoughts in words, music and praise to Jesus our Lord.

Prayer: Dear Father in Heaven, thank you for the Pastors, the church staff, the musical directors, Sunday School teachers, and all those that help to put together a welcoming and open gathering place to worship our Lord. May we find more understanding of your messages. May we find more ways to open communication between the generations, the cultural differences and any other dividing differences. May we extend our hand to help others learn of your love.  In Jesus name, we pray. Amen

Lori Hood