Friday, January 20, 2017

Using Good Language

This past Sunday #4 was youth speaker in church.  The topic given to her to speak on is Using Good Language.  While helping her prepare for this talk, I learned alot of things about myself that I seriously need to change.  I do not use profanity in my everyday language, but there are times that I find myself swearing - especially when I get mad (which is not at all a good excuse) !

I actually really hate it when I hear people use profanity and don't understand why people feel that every other word needs to be a curse.  Because I feel we can always use some encouragement and maybe also learn something new, I thought I'd upload a copy of Salele's talk ,,,,

Brothers & Sisters Talofa !  I have been given the topic Using Good Language.  In Ephesians 4:29 it says “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.”.
How we communicate should reflect who we are as a son or daughter of God. Clean and intelligent language is evidence of a bright and wholesome mind.  Good language that uplifts, encourages, and compliments others invites the Spirit to be with us. Our words, like our deeds, should be filled with faith, hope, and charity.

A father was working with one of his young sons on a project in their home when the young boy hurt his hand and let fly a string of profanity. His mother and sisters looked on in shocked silence.
The father, an active high priest, asked to know where the boy had learned such foul language. The boy’s unhesitating response mortified the father:
“I learned it from you, in the barn last week.”
The boy probably had trouble remembering his times tables. His ability to recite the Articles of Faith was likely limited. But he learned well that lesson on profanity his dad had given him, unintentionally, in the barn.
The father learned a lesson that day, too. He resolved never again to be the source of vulgar or profane language.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks has observed, “The nature and extent of profanity and vulgarity in our society is a measure of its deterioration.” (Ensign, May 1986, p. 49.)
As this problem has mushroomed, Church leaders have reached out to youth to counsel us to overcome negative influences on our language.
Among the counsel we have received is this: “How you speak and the words you use tell much about the image you choose to portray. Profane, vulgar, or crude language and inappropriate or off-color jokes are offensive to the Lord. They harm your spirit and degrade you. Don’t lower yourself to use such language or jokes, even if people around you do.” (For the Strength of Youth, Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1990, p. 10.) We know that the brain controls what words are spoken, but when we allow a profanity to find a place in our vocabularies, the profanity, and not the brain, often seems to be in control.

President Joseph Fielding Smith states: “Profanity is filthiness. A person is known as much by his language as he is by the company he keeps. … Filthiness in any form is degrading and soul-destroying and should be avoided.” If we are not most careful with our thoughts and speech, the words we use will use us. Language has its own ethics, and one who communicates truth is like a bright light in the darkness. We must nurture language like that.

Members of the Church, young or old, should never allow profane or vulgar words to pass their lips. The language we use projects the images of our hearts, and our hearts should be pure. As the Savior taught: “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
President Gordon B. Hinckley urged us to choose the Savior as our role model, he said: “I know that the Lord is pleased when we use clean and virtuous language, for He has set an example for us. His revelations are couched in words that are affirmative, that are uplifting, that encourage us to do what is right and to go forward in truth and goodness.”

In conclusion I’d like to bear my testimony (talk about how using good language) …..

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ – Amen !

No comments: