Communicate to One Another | The One Another Way - Colossians 3:16, Ephesians 4:25, 29 | Tony Walliser

Well, good morning.

Welcome to Silverdale Baptist.

I am so excited that all of you here are worshiping with us today.

If I haven't had a chance to meet you personally, I'm Tony Walliser, one of the pastors here at Silverdale, and I have the privilege to share with you God's word.

So this one I encourage you to do.

Go and take your Bibles, open up in the New Testament to the book of Ephesians, turn to Ephesians chapter 4.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

And you can also, you got a smartphone, you can open your Bible app to Ephesians 4.

We got a Silverdale app as well.

And then do this.

Take out these Bible study outlines we provide for you.

We give these outlines so you can follow along and take notes as we study God's Word together.

As you probably know, we've been in a series called the One Another Way.

And what we're doing is we're looking at these one another principles found in the New Testament.

And if these principles are applied to our relationships, they'll transform every relationship.

So you can apply them to your mom or your dad or your children, your grandkids, your neighbors, your boss, your coworkers, whatever it may be, they will transform relationships if you will apply them.

Now, in the Bible, in the New Testament, there's almost 100 one another principles.

Okay?

And that's that means that if God repeats Himself that many times, this is something that's very important.

Now, there's some people that go, well, yeah, I don't need other Christians in my life.

I don't need the church.

I can worship God by myself out in the forest.

True, you can go do that.

But listen, you cannot one another with a tree, right?

You can't.

I mean, the Christian faith isn't just about personal inner peace, it's about living at peace with one another.

And if your faith doesn't include some one-anothering going on with other people, it's not the true Christian faith.

And so today, what we're gonna do, we're gonna talk about how we're supposed to communicate and talk to one another.

We're gonna look at um just a couple of verses today.

It's an amazing passage found in Ephesians 4.

Let me read these words to you.

This is the Apostle Paul writing, but it's God's word to you today.

Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.

Now look down at verse 29.

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for the building up as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear it.

This is the word of the Lord for you today.

Thanks be to God.

Now, today we are going to talk about how we're supposed to communicate to one another.

Now, communication is key in every relationship.

Communication is the highway on which love flows.

And so I can say, I feel like I love this person, but if I don't know how to communicate that, that love doesn't flow to that person.

And can I just say that the vast majority of relationships that break down, it is because of bad and poor communication.

That can be true in a marriage or a family or in business or in a sports team.

If you don't have good communication, then what happens?

It doesn't work.

Now there's a lot of funny stories of people that have miscommunicated with each other.

I recently read about this, some man who was walking in his neighborhood, and um he notices his neighbor is moving a washing machine, you know, through his door, and he's really struggling.

And so he goes over to his neighbor, the homeowner, and says, Hey, um, you know, can I help you with that washing machine?

Oh, he goes, Yeah, this is such a bulky appliance.

Thanks so much.

And so they get on either side of it, and there's some you know pushing and pulling going on, and after a couple minutes they stop at frustration.

They're like, Man, you know, the neighbor goes, I don't know if we can get this thing in.

The homeowner goes, In, I've been trying to get it out.

Well, that's the problem of communication, isn't it?

And so we've got to learn to communicate effectively.

And so from the passage that we just read, I want you to see four incredible important principles on how we're supposed to communicate to each other.

Ready?

Jot this down your outline.

Number one, first of all, you got to use honest words rather than misleading words.

Honest words.

There is no relationship and intimacy without honesty, right?

I mean, honesty is the key for trust, and if you're gonna trust somebody, that's that's key to a relationship.

And so again, notice how Paul starts us off again, Ephesians 4.25, having put away falsehood.

Let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.

And so Paul starts and says, hey, we shouldn't be lying to each other.

Now, why shouldn't we be lying to each other?

You go, because it's wrong, right?

Well, Paul says, hey, because we belong to each other, right?

Relationships are dependent on truth and honesty.

You know, truth is the currency for every relationship.

And so if a person doesn't feel like they can trust what you say that you're telling them the truth, then they're not gonna trust you.

And if they don't trust you, the relationship ends and crumbles.

I mean, so somebody's got to tell you the truth.

I mean, think of it like this.

Let's just say that in my car, my speedometer only went up to 45 miles an hour.

And I would love that.

Because I think, oh, I'm under the speed limit all the time.

And I'm cruising, maybe I'm going 80, 90 miles an hour, but I don't know that because it says 45 miles an hour.

Now, it's telling me what I want to hear, but it's not giving me the truth.

And so what happens?

Well, guess what?

That's destructive.

It's destructive for me, and maybe it's gonna be destructive for other people around me that I'm driving next to.

It is critical that we really know the truth.

And so, what does Paul tell us to do?

This passage starts off.

He says, put away what?

Falsehood.

We gotta reject every form of deception.

That means outright lies, that means half-truths, that means exaggeration, that means gossip, that means misleading silence, that means, you know what, pretending everything is fine.

Why is it that we don't tell the truth to one another?

Because we're cowards.

It takes courage, right?

To go to somebody and tell them some hard truth from time to time and say, hey, this is what's really going on.

Here's the truth.

See, a lot of us would rather keep the peace rather than speak the truth.

But we've got to speak the truth to one another.

I mean, if you say to your spouse, hey, what's wrong?

Nothing.

Well, somehow in my heart I feel like something is wrong.

It's no big deal.

I'm fine.

Well, if if you say you're fine, show your face and your attitude, right?

And so the thing is, is resentment's building up.

Why?

Because we're not willing to speak the truth.

I mean, notice how this is written in Proverbs.

It says this, Proverbs 28.

In the end, people appreciate frankness more than flattery.

It's true.

If you tell me, oh, Pastor Tony, you're wonderful, and I'm not wonderful in a particular area, then guess what?

I'm not hearing the truth.

If I got a booger hanging outside my nose, and you say, Pastor, you look great today, and I embarrass myself in front of everybody, that does me no good, right?

You gotta speak the truth to one another.

Now, in a marriage relationship, I call this sharing withholds.

You can put that on your outline.

Susan and I, we learned this years ago, that in a relationship, there are times that things happen and we just sort of shove it down and we don't say anything, but it's bothering us.

And so typically, sometimes once a week, we'll just say, Hey, I've got a withhold that I need to share, right?

And she may share it with me.

And she may say, Hey, Tony, when you said this or whenever you did this or didn't do that, it bothered me.

And she shares that thing.

She's telling me the truth.

Why must we do that?

Because I don't know what I don't know, right?

And neither do you.

And I can't read your mind, and you can't read mine either.

We've got to speak the truth.

But, okay, we've got to speak the truth, but you gotta speak the truth in the right way.

Notice how Paul says this a little earlier in Ephesians 4.

He says this, look at it, Ephesians 4.15.

Speaking the truth in what?

Say it out loud.

In love, right?

You gotta speak the truth in love.

Because you can speak the truth, and if it's not done in love, it can be just as destructive as not saying anything at all, right?

Now, some people, you you know them, they're just they're just they call themselves, I'm just frank.

I'm I'm just that's just who I am.

I just tell it like it is, you know, I just speak my mind, and that's my candor, that's just who I am.

And what they're doing is they're actually saying, hey, um, I'm being truthful, well, you're really just being hurtful.

And that can be very destructive.

So you need to learn to, you know, speak the truth in love.

If a husband says to his wife, man, you've really put on a lot of weight, what's your problem?

That's the wrong way to have that conversation.

She'll probably come back and says, I'm married to a loser husband.

That's a problem right there, you know?

So the thing is, is that you go, all right, there's this balance.

I've got to speak truth, but I've got to do it in love.

How do I do that?

That's the second point.

Jot this on your line.

Number two is this use positive rather than negative words.

Use positive rather than negative words.

See, I can speak the truth, but I can do it in the wrong way.

And cold words can freeze people, and hot people, I mean, hot words can scourge people, and bitter words can bite people, but guess what?

Kind words can heal people, and positive words can build people up.

So, what does the Bible tell us to how to communicate?

Look at verse 29.

This is powerful.

Paul writes, Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such is good for building up, as fits the occasion that it may give grace to those who hear it.

Now, you see that word corrupting talk, right?

You go, what does that mean?

That means, I mean, literally, in the ancient Greek, it meant food that's souring, like sour milk, rotting food.

I mean, think of it like this.

Have you been on vacation and you come back home and you open the refrigerator and go, whoa, something died in there, right?

You got to clean out the whole thing to get rid of that smell.

Well, that's what Paul says.

We have this corrupting talk that can come out of our mouths.

Today we would say toxic talk.

Paul's saying, don't let any toxic talk come out of your mouth, right?

I mean, I love the imagery here because the imagery is like it's down there.

We got these words that are boiling up.

And oh, I could just, I just would love to say this little snar remark.

I would love to say this little cuda, you know, cutting, you know, thing here.

And it's just, it'd be so funny to say it.

And Paul says, Don't let it cross your lips.

Don't allow that corrupting talk to come out.

So, what does that mean?

That means no labeling and name-calling.

That's what it means.

I mean, in our culture today, you hear this all the time.

You hear people say, You stupid idiot.

You're a loser, you're just a drama queen, right?

You're a slacker, you're worthless, you're prophetic, pathetic, you're a failure.

Now, let me just say, if you say those kind of words to your loved ones, that is like shrapnel in their heart and in their mind.

And those kind of words are hard to take back.

And it's hard to recover from those kind of words.

That is corrupting talk, and it should not come from the mouths of Christians.

Right?

And so, when your loved ones come to you, when they leave, do they feel labeled or do they feel loved by your words?

And so, how do you replace that kind of corrupting talk?

Well, you gotta replace the labels with life-giving words.

Notice again what Paul writes.

He says, Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, right?

Instead of having these words that always tear down, why don't you have words that build up?

The Bible says that life and death are in the power of the tongue.

We've got to watch our words.

Now, I've shared before how important it is in our relationships to use a ratio of five to one.

What does that mean?

To use five positive words for every negative comment that you make.

A five to one.

Now, can I just tell you all the studies and statistics and analysis have shown this to be true.

In marriages, this guy right here, John Gottman, a researcher, um, studied thousands of healthy couples, and what he discovered, the average of their conversation was five positive to one negative.

And he discovered that when the positive started going down and the negative started going up, suddenly a cascade problem started happening in those relationships.

There was another study done of workplaces, environments.

What's the most effective workplace?

Here's what they discovered: the ratio is 5.67 positive comments to your employees versus one negative.

Okay?

There's been studies done of parenting.

What's the most effective parenting style?

You know what it is?

Five positive to one negative.

Okay?

Now listen, in parenting, you gotta say a lot of negative things, right?

I mean, these kids are foolishnesses in that child, right?

I gotta tell them no a bunch, right?

Yeah, you do.

But you have to set boundaries to make sure you're being positive, not just negative all the time.

And so somehow God's designed us this way.

The golden ratio for relationships that are healthy is five to one.

Five positive for one negative.

Now, I thought, okay, we're studying in the scriptures the one another principles.

Some of them are positive, some of them are negative.

Some of them are, you know what, encourage one another, build one another, some of them are correct one another and rebuke one another and confess your sins to one another.

And so you look at all those and you go, okay, what's the ratio that God's given us with the one another principles?

Ready?

Here it is.

It is 5.57 positive to one critical.

Isn't that crazy?

That modern research has basically, you know, confirmed what God's word has said all along.

Five to one ratio.

Now you may be wondering, okay, well, typically our society, what is the ratio that we actually are living with?

Okay?

Well, in the classrooms, in the family, in the workplaces, you know what the average is?

Here it is.

One positive for three negative.

One positive for three negative.

And you go, no wonder we live in a sexotoxic world.

We do, of course we do, right?

Because we've normalized that kind of behavior and it's wrong.

Listen, we are followers of Jesus Christ.

We are not followers of the culture of this world.

I know what our culture is doing and we think it's acceptable.

It is not.

We've got to change the culture.

We've got to change the way we communicate.

We've got to choose, strive to change the ratio of five to one, okay?

In fact, I want you to say this out loud with me: change the ratio.

Ready?

Let's say this together.

Change the ratio.

Change the ratio.

You've got to do it.

Can I just tell you?

Your relationships will be transformed just by applying this one principle.

And so I want to help you apply this, okay?

On your outlines, there is a place where you can write down a name.

A name of a person that this week you're like, okay, I'm going to try to be more positive, this person.

Try to do five to one to them, right?

And maybe it's your spouse, maybe it's a coworker, maybe kids, grandkids, whatever it is, write down, think of a name there, you know, and just say, I'm going to apply positive words.

So, Paul writes, okay, with our words, they got to be honest.

Secondly, they got to be positive, right?

How do you do this?

Well, three is this.

Jot this on your outline.

Number three, you use careful words rather than careless words.

You use careful words rather than careless words.

Now, this is my favorite part of this verses.

Notice again how Paul says this.

Verse 29.

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as good for building up.

Look at it, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

And so Paul's saying that whenever we're speaking, we're communicating not to win an argument, but to win a relationship.

So we've got to make sure our words are crafted the right way.

I love the way Solomon says this in Proverbs.

He puts it this way: Proverbs 21.

A word aptly spoken.

It's like apples of gold and settings of silver.

And you go, what's he talking about there?

He's talking about our words, but he's talking about jewelry, right?

I mean, did you know that um archaeologists they've they've uncovered and unearthed a lot of different um jewelry in Israel?

And so here's a picture of a ring that was made over 3,000 years ago by a you know special craftsman, right?

I mean, it's still beautiful today.

That was made before Solomon wrote that in the Bible, okay?

And so what is Solomon saying to us?

He says, you know what?

Just like you have a jewelsmith and a goldsmith and a silversmith, we need to be a wordsmith.

We need to just make sure we're using the right words in the right way.

And so if you've got this delicate conversation to have with your spouse, you better choose your words, you know, rightly and correctly.

If you you have an issue at work and you know there's a conflict, you don't just blurt out whatever comes to your mind.

You go, no, I need to say the right words in the right way.

I need to have the even the proper tone in the way that I say these words.

I mean, again, notice what it says in Proverbs.

Proverbs 15 says this a gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

See, you know, I'm gonna give a gentle answer.

I'm gonna speak the truth, I'm gonna do it in love, I'm gonna do it in a gentle way.

Why?

Because again, I'm not trying to win an argument, I'm trying to win the relationship.

I want to do it in love.

But this is something I've discovered.

Because I'm a communicator, I talk all the time.

But here's the problem: talking and communicating is not the same as listening.

And the only way we're gonna become good communicators is if we first become good listeners in our relationships, right?

The problem is that, you know, um people say things to us that disagree with us.

And you know what?

You don't always have to agree with what somebody's saying, but that person needs to know they have been heard, right?

Notice how the apostle James puts this in James chapter one, he says this everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.

It's like God has speed limits on our communication.

We are to be quick to listen and slow to speak.

We got two ears, one mouth.

That means we need to listen twice as much as we talk, right?

And so before I respond, I I need to I need to think, I need to listen.

Because what happens is many times somebody's saying something that I disagree with, I'm immediately thinking of my response.

I'm gonna say back to them, but guess what?

As soon as you start thinking of your response, you have stopped listening.

You have.

Now, one of the my favorite genres of reading books and um movies is detective mysteries.

Okay?

And so typically in detective books, you you have a crime, and then you have the detective that comes to the crime scene and he sees a few clues, but then he comes up with a whole lot of guesses, a whole lot of theories.

And a lot of those guesses and theories put him on all these different transits, you know, all these different paths, and but he's collecting more and more truth, more and more evidence, and then finally at the end of the book, you get all the evidence, and finally the truth is revealed.

This is what I've discovered in my marriage with Susan and I.

When we guess, we are wrong 99% of the time.

We've got to listen intently to know what's really going on.

So, how do we do this?

Well, I want to make this as practical as I possibly can, okay?

And so um what Susan and I do is we have what is known as a communication conference.

A communication conference, okay?

And that's where, you know, Susan may say, or sometimes we actually set up a time every week where we just say, hey, we need to talk about things in our marriage, right?

And now, this is what I want you to see.

On your outline here, there is a QR code.

And this QR code will send you to two resources that I'm going to address today.

Okay?

Now listen, every married couple here, download down, download these.

You make sure you get these, you print them off, you laminate them, multiple copies, put one in the bedroom, one on the refrigerator, one on the dining room table, and use it.

Okay, I'm telling you, this has transformed our marriage.

Okay?

These communication skills that I'm gonna teach you here today.

I'm just gonna go over them real briefly.

Okay?

The first tool that you'll see is what we call a marriage huddle.

All right?

Now, the marriage huddle.

Susan and I wrote this when we were in an extremely stressful, busy season of our life, and we were just missing each other and we weren't communicating with each other.

And so, what this is, these are 12 areas that affect every marriage.

And so, what we do is every week, we'll just take 10 or 15 minutes.

And she'll bring up one, and I'll bring up one, and we'll talk about it.

You don't have to do all 12, even though all 12 are awesome.

You know, got a weekend with your wife, husband, do the whole thing, okay?

But just, you know, do a couple every week.

And I'm telling you, it will transform.

It will bring up things that you need to talk about that are urgent that you just can't push down.

And then the second tool that you have, if you download this, it's called the floor.

Okay?

It's the floor.

And it just simply means it is these um these techniques of how to communicate with each other.

It's it's a speaker-listener technique.

And Susan and I have used this for years, okay?

In fact, what we did is we actually printed it on a piece of laminate tile from our back porch.

This is literally the floor, okay?

And so let me explain to you how the floor works.

Okay?

And so typically, we're having this conversation.

It's maybe a sensitive topic.

We know I've got to choose my words, you know, clearly and best way.

And so I will give this to Susan and say, you have the floor, okay?

And then what does she do?

She follows the principles here, right?

First, she uses short phrases because I have a short attention span.

She can't go on and on and on, just tell it short, right?

And um, then she um she uses I feel messages.

Because often, whenever we're heard, we we share I, you know, you ought.

You ought to do this, you should have done this, you always do that.

Listen, that's the way parents talk to children.

That is not how you talk to your spouse.

You're not gonna get anywhere like that, okay?

And so she shares these short phrases, she shares I feel messages like um, you know, Tony, um, I felt um hurt whenever you were supposed to pick me up and you forgot about picking me up.

Or um, I feel unimportant whenever I'm trying to talk to you and your head is in front of the screen.

Okay.

And so then once she's communicated, then I repeat back what I think I just heard, and I don't always get it right.

And I repeat back and I'll say, Susan, so what I hear you saying is that um when I didn't pick you up, you felt hurt by that.

Is that right?

That's right.

Okay, all right.

And so once she feels fully like she's been heard, then she gives the floor to me, and now it's my turn.

And if there's anything I need to say or any excuse I need to give, that's my opportunity to do it at that time, okay?

And we go back and forth until we have both been fully heard and we resolve whatever issue is going on.

And can I just tell you, when I first started this, I'm like, this is ridiculous, this is childish, this is kindergarten, but this has saved our marriage, right?

This simple tool of communication.

Because listen, you can't put off stuff.

If you just shove stuff down all the time and not communicate in a marriage, your marriage is gonna wither up.

Now, what I've discovered is that these techniques aren't just useful in marriage, they're useful in every place.

They're useful at work.

If you're in a meeting with me, many times I'll pause and I'll say, okay, what I hear you saying is this.

What am I doing?

I'm using a communication technique.

That's what I'm doing, okay?

Did you know that Disney did this as well?

Walt Disney, um, he had these what they called sweatbox sessions with his animators.

And after they had done a day's work the next day, they'd get together and they'd say, you know, uh Disney would say to his animators, he goes, Okay, okay, what's wrong with this um picture right here?

Right?

And none of the animators would say anything because they didn't want to criticize their fellow, you know, artist.

And so, you know, Disney knew, okay, I gotta, I want some feedback and I I need to change the way I use my wording.

And so he called it plussing.

He goes, you know what?

This is amazing.

This is good stuff.

How can we plus it?

What are some pluses we can add to this?

How can we make this better?

And suddenly, whenever he just changed the dynamic and changed the words, suddenly he started getting great feedback.

What was that?

That is a word aptly spoken.

It gives grace, it builds up rather than tears down.

Now, look at so far the three points that we've done so far.

You look at that and you go, ooh, this is hard work, Pastor Tony.

Yeah, it is.

It's the work that we're all supposed to be doing.

And you go, this feels almost impossible.

Well, you know what?

The apostle James said something like that.

James said this.

James said that as humans, we have tamed every wild animal known to man.

We've tamed them.

But there's one wild animal we can't seem to tame, and it is our tongue.

That means this is hard to do.

May even feel impossible to do.

You go, is it impossible?

Yeah.

So let's just pray and go home.

No, we're that's not impossible.

There's hope, but you've got to make the next choice.

Ready?

Here it is.

Number four is this.

Jot this down.

Use Christ's word to change your words.

You use Christ's word to change your word.

If I want to change what's coming out of my mouth, I've got to change what's really dwelling on my heart.

Okay?

Notice how Jesus said this in John, I mean Luke chapter six.

Jesus said, For out of the abundance of the heart, your mouth speaks.

Right?

Out of the overflow of your heart is what's coming out of your mouth.

Right?

Now I grew up at a home with my siblings and my brothers that we always did these cutting remarks.

We do these quick put-downs snark comments to put each other down.

That's the way we were raised, that's the way we would interact with each other.

So when I got married, I communicated that way with Susan.

And I'd give her these little quick, you know, cut-down remarks on her.

And it wounded her.

It hurt her.

And she says, Tony, that hurt me.

And I go, Oh, you know I'm just kidding.

I didn't mean anything by that.

I'm just kidding, right?

And I would just make all these excuses and I kept communicating that way.

And then one day, Susan quotes Jesus to me.

She says, Tony, Jesus says that out of the abundance of your heart, your mouth speaks.

So if you're making those kind of comments, putting me down, that's what you really think about me.

And I realize something.

I gotta shut my mouth.

I gotta learn to communicate completely differently.

So if what is in here is what comes out here, our mouths, we've got to change what is in here.

How do you do that?

Well, there's a parallel passage to what we've been studying today.

It's found in the book of Colossians.

Look at Colossians 3.16.

Look at what God's word says there.

It says, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and exhorting one another with all wisdom.

There's some other one another principles there.

But you notice what it says there?

It says, Let Christ's word do what?

Dwell richly.

What does that mean?

That means allow God's word to be at home.

Allow God's word to run the house of your life, right?

To dwell there.

I mean, if you come to my house and as a guest and I say, Hey, make yourself at home.

We say that, we don't mean that, right?

Because if a guest comes in and suddenly the guest starts rummaging through my closets or rearranging furniture or grabs a remote and you know dominates the TV, I'm like, Whoa, whoa, whoa, what are you doing, man?

You said make yourself at home.

I didn't mean that.

You're a guest, act like a guest, okay?

You don't live here, you don't dwell here.

Well, the Bible says God's word is to dwell, it is to take up residence, it is to be there richly.

It's not just a resident, it is the president.

Now, why do we need God's word so much in our heart and life?

I'll tell you why.

Because God's word describes who God is, describes who you are, and describes what Christ has done for us.

And when you begin to get that in your heart and mind, it changes your words.

Changes your words, right?

I mean, I can give grace to others because I know I've been given grace.

I can forgive others because I've been forgiven.

I can sacrificially love others.

Why?

Because I've been sacrificially loved.

And the only way I'm gonna do that is if I change the um the soundtrack of my heart and my mind.

Did you know that every movie has a soundtrack, right?

They even give out Academy Awards for the best soundtrack for the movies of the year.

I mean, you think of Star Wars and those soundtracks, right?

I mean, they're just amazing.

And what happens is you have the film, but the soundtrack is what actually sets the mood and the tone and creates so much of the movie.

Now, there's a lot of really creative people out there on the internet, and they have taken some classic movie scenes and they have put new soundtracks to them.

Notice how it changes the whole scene.

Ready?

Check this out.

Look at this clip from the Titanic.

Check this out.

Okay, I know I just ruined that movie for you, but doesn't the soundtrack change the whole mood of that movie, right?

That scene.

Paul's saying you gotta change the soundtrack of your mind and your heart and your life.

It's gotta be the word of God.

You gotta let it dwell within you richly.

And whenever you allow Christ and His Word dwell, then guess what?

What comes is in here, has residence, will come out here.

And when you do that, we will start communicating to one another the right way.

Amen.

Let's pray together.

Father, thank you so much for your word.

I thank you, Lord Jesus, for the way that you teach us that your word is practical to where we live.

And so, Lord, forgive us for following the course of this world rather than following what your word tells us to do.

Help us to be people that really know how to communicate to one another well.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.