"People Don't Talk Anymore"

“An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up.”
Proverbs 12:25 (NIV)

A couple of weeks ago, on a Sunday morning, I was in my six year-old son Jonathan's room. I had laid out his clothes for him to wear to church. As he was dressing, I sat down on the floor, pulled out my cell phone and started fiddling with it. I was deleting past calls, past messages, etc. Jonathan started saying something to me, but I didn't hear a word of it. I was too engrossed in what I was doing. I just kept saying something like: “Uh huh, uh huh, uh huh.” Well, that got Jonathan mad!
He came over, knelt down in front of me, took my face in his hands, and asked if I had heard what he had said. I replied that I actually had not. He then scrunched up his face, looked me right in the eyes and said (in a really loud voice): “Dad...people don't talk anymore!' ”


I asked him what he meant by that. He said something that I'll remember for a long time: “People don't talk anymore. You're always on your phone, Mom's always checking her email, and Matthew's always on his 'Leapster' (an electronic game). People don't talk anymore!”

“Wow!” I thought to myself. “He's right. People don't talk anymore...at least not as much as they used to. Pretty insightful for a six year-old”. I put my phone down, looked him right in the eye, and said: “Okay Jonathan...you got me. Now what did you want to talk to me about?” He started telling me, but to be honest, I can't remember what it was. I was too busy reflecting on what he had said before that:
“People don't talk anymore!”


It was hard coming up with a scripture verse to go along with this devotion. But I believe the one above fits. We live in a stressful world, and as a result, we often suffer from what I like to call “Anxious Heart Syndrome”. A “kind word” can cheer us up and make all the difference in the world. Jonathan was right. People are
(or at least they seem to be) always on the phone, or the computer, or an iPod, or whatever. We should talk more. And when I say “talk”, I mean… literally, with our voice. Not text, or email or Twitter (whatever that is), but with our voice.

Let's all try that. Let's all try to take ten minutes, put down our electronic devices, turn off the television, put down our books or magazines, and talk...really talk. Let's all try our best to give those special people in our lives the attention and “kind word” that they so desperately need.