Today's Daily Bread
Dr. Deb Roy, a researcher and cognitive scientist with the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, recorded the first 3 years of his
child’s life to learn how humans acquire language. He and his wife
rigged their home with recording devices, which they used to collect
over 200,000 hours of audio and video footage. Amassing, condensing, and
editing the recordings enabled them to hear baby sounds like “gaga”
evolve into words like “water.”
If someone wanted to conduct a research project at your home, would
you participate if you knew that your every syllable would be recorded
and analyzed? What would the study reveal? Proverbs 18 offers insight
about some unwise speech patterns. The writer notes that foolish people
express their own opinions instead of trying to understand what others
have to say (v.2). Does this characterize us? Do we sometimes provoke
fights with our words (v.7), or speak impulsively and “answer a matter
before [hearing] it”? (v.13).
We need to become students of our speech. With God’s help we can
identify and transform destructive dialogue into words of encouragement
that are “good for necessary edification” and that “impart grace to the
hearers” (Eph. 4:29).
Take my voice and let me sing
Always, only, for my King;
Take my lips and let them be
Filled with messages for Thee. —Havergal
Always, only, for my King;
Take my lips and let them be
Filled with messages for Thee. —Havergal
Our words have the power to build up or tear down.
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