STOP TALKING & START SPEAKING.

How much of your time do you spend talking to other people daily? How much of that talking is of value, does it serve a purpose? Are you mindlessly letting words come out and do not know what you're saying or have said?

Our speaking is so important to us. I have come to a level of awareness that has made me start layering the filters of my mouth. To look at the conversations that I am starting or joining. Are they really necessary? Do I need to say that or talk that way? Is the information being portrayed adding value to someone's life? Blessing someone else? Encouraging, or helping someone? Our deep-rooted need to feel connection, acceptance, and love comes from our basic need for survival. We survive by being accepted, needed, and connected to the group. But is what you bring to the table adding anything of value to the group or are you just there because you need it? We cannot stand to be rejected, isolated, pushed away, and alone because being alone, rejected, and isolated means death.

Life is too short for us to spend our time talking mindlessly about empty topics, people, and drama. To talk is to ramble on in a conversation that has no purpose, to transfer information from one to the other. I encourage you to speak.

"The tongue has the power of life and death, those who love it will eat its fruit." Proverbs 18:21

When we speak, we are intentional about our words, purposeful in our communication, mindful of our communications. A person who speaks from the heart is confident, and secure in themselves as to not engage in mindless conversation. They are busy with their work, not their job, their work. Their focus is on prosperity, purpose, and enlightenment. To be ever evolving and changing, encouraging, and helping others. We have the power to destroy others with our talk or to give life with our speech. Choose life. Add value to your conversations, talk about deeper subjects, and not shallow gossip. Elevate yourself to live in the deep as you were created. It is better to say nothing and listen to it than to say a lot and be foolish.

To be a good speaker you must first be able to be a good listener. TD Jakes says that when the listening goes, the speech goes. Listening is not just with the ears, we listen with our hearts also, and we listen with our eyes too. We interpret body language and feel the emotions portrayed. We have to take it in, process it, and search ourselves for the best, most valuable response.

We need to learn to consciously respond, not to emotionally react.

"Those who guard their lips preserve their lives, but those who speak rashly will come to ruin." Proverbs 12:3

How do we begin to transform our speech? The transformation happens when our hearts begin to change, our perspective changes, our understanding changes. We need to be quiet and listen more, research more, and learn more about subjects we are not just interested in, but others are interested in. This helps us to communicate more effectively, and better equip to help others. If you do not like to read, then listen to audiobooks and practice listening. Reading will come. I did not like to read either it made me sleepy, and I was slow. Eventually, I developed a reading habit because I was tired of seeking advice only to be rendered the I do not know the answer response. This did not work for me.

I encourage you to start listening, start getting curious, start reading, and start learning so you can transform your heart to speak not just to talk. Your voice is so powerful. How you think and talk in your heart is where you will end up in life.

"The upright (honorable, intrinsically good) man out of the good treasure [stored] in his heart produces what is upright (honorable and intrinsically good), and the evil man out of the evil storehouse brings forth that which is depraved (wicked and intrinsically evil); for out of the abundance (overflow) of the heart his mouth speaks." -Luke 6: 45

Speak Life!

Em xo