Communicating With Grace

Colossians 4:6

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

Philippians 4:8

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me - practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

This past weekend we had the opportunity to attend church with extended family members in order to also attend our niece's musical. It was a sweet children's musical about God's love for us and His desire for us to be part of His eternal family. I am thankful for the talent and work these children and teachers exerted in order to share the gospel message with others.

Before the musical, however, we attended the service with all of our children, an additional child visiting our family for respite, and grandparents who were visiting for the weekend. The church's pastor was gone for the weekend and a guest pastor gave the sermon. About half way through the sermon I got a sinking, uh-oh kind of feeling in my heart that this sermon was going to do more damage than good for some of our children. A few minutes later I took one of the kiddos and walked out. Sadly, I should have exited with the whole crew.

The preacher was very passionate about some things that God is very passionate about, caring for the poor, the orphaned, the widowed, the destitute, the hungry, the hurting, the lost. The preacher was excited to stir up hearts to be on fire for Christ, to motivate the church to actually work (get dirty, pay a price, sacrifice, extend yourself) to reach out to those in need. Sounds good, right?

Sadly, though, the preacher did not communicate these good, Biblical truths with grace. Instead of seasoning his words with salt, he used anger. He took a Biblical text to teach Truth and instead of reading it, he paraphrased it, adding angry words that my children with impulse control issues cannot handle hearing. It is one thing to say that my kids have a hard time being around bad language (which is true), but it is another thing to add these kinds of word to a Biblical text. Adding filth and anger to the text is not an honorable or praise-worthy way to handle the Word of God. (Granted, there are times in the Bible when God displays righteous anger, but the text in Luke 15 is not one of them.)

We spent our supper time that evening doing some teaching about our words and how we communicate God's Truth with others. Surely, this preacher had a great desire to inspire the church to do good. The message was lost because he did not communicate it with grace. This thought has laid heavily on my heart as I consider how often I desire to inspire (teach, train, impart, correct, discipline) good truths to my children and how often they may miss those good truths altogether when I do not communicate in the grace and love of Christ.

It is my prayer this week that my speech, teaching and correcting my children and encouraging my husband and those around me, would be gracious, seasoned with salt so that my intended message would not be lost and so that I would know how to give a right answer that builds up and does not tear down.