Meaningful Words

            How much meaningful conversation do you have with your wife, husband, kids or friends? I am stuck at home these days because of the double vision and so tuned in to a sermon on the computer yesterday and several facts in that message made me think about some things in my own life. I thought I would share a couple of thoughts today. Fathers were asked by a secular organization how much time they spent talking to their children. The reply was that they thought they were spending about 20 minutes a day, which is not great, but things got worse. When monitored, they were down to about 1 minute and in many cases fifteen seconds. What it boils down to is how much time you spend discussing, teaching or mentioning things that have eternal value or which are considered to be the most important things in the world? I went to lunch the other day with our son and he asked me what the preacher poke about the week before down in North Carolina, which I had tuned in on that Sunday. I couldn't tell him the topic. I could see the man preaching, but the topic of the message was gone. I could safely say, “well, he spoke on the Bible.” We speak about projects going on, work issues, things are happening at home, the neighbors, television and so on but we rarely speak about Biblical issues or subjects. Deuteronomy 6:1-2 says, “ Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it:   That thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged.”

           In order to fulfill these verses of Scripture, you are going to have to speak about Biblical issues so well that you children will tell their children the same things with the same amount of enthusiasm that you have for the things of God today. If we are speaking to our children only 15 seconds a day about meaningful things, then who else is speaking to them? The answer is obvious. The world is yelling at them everyday with the values of the world system and they are accepting the message and the message given by the world is beginning to change them and to mold them into a “worldly” person instead of a “Godly” person. Deuteronomy 6 has the command and the rest of the Bible has the message that is proclaimed. The above passage focuses on the family, but the conversations should also be not only with our families, but also with those we have contact with each and every day. It should be with our customers, or with those that serve us or our neighbors. We notice that there are three generations mentioned in the above verse. There are times that we fear what will happen when we start talking about spiritual things and that we will be offending someone. You don't have to debate Calvinism or Creationism or evolution or where Cain got his wife or all the other questions that the world wants to throw at you. You can, however, speak about God's love for you and what He has done for you in your life and the hope that you have for the future or as in the case above, speaking about God's commandments. We can spend hour getting stressed out over who is going to win the election or the price of gasoline in California or we can speak about the promises of God. We all need to try to be having “meaningful” conversations with those around us today, not tomorrow. Praise God for His instructions to us.