“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” That familiar child’s mantra has helped many a child feel better, but in reality, words can indeed hurt. However, they can also educate, uplift and inspire. Words can impart wisdom, thrill a child’s imagination with bedtime stories, and reassure those we love of our love. Words are the essence of communication from one to another. Language is a sublime gift from our Father in Heaven that is rarely recognized as such.
Consider Oliver Cowdery’s exultant description of his conversation with an angel from on high. “But you will believe me when I say, that Earth, nor men, with the eloquence of time, cannot begin to clothe language in as interesting and sublime a manner as this holy personage!”
What was it about the angel’s ability to “clothe language” that caused Oliver to so marvel? Perhaps a clue was penned by “The Poet McNaughton” in 1860 when he wrote, “There is beauty all around, when there’s love at home. Love becomes a way of life, when there’s love at home.”
Whether it is love or anger in one’s heart, it is there that our language is born. But once born, we have the choice as to how we will express that which is first formed in our hearts and minds. Just as it would be quite difficult to compose a great symphony with naught but a few minor chords, likewise would it be the same to “clothe” our language in a manner that can lift and inspire others if we have never sought to improve our word quilting abilities.
The loss of the beauty of language can be seen everywhere. Be it in movies, books, casual conversation or, saddest of all, in our homes, language has become corrupted with the use of meaningless, even foul words. Cruel words spit with the venom of evil, tactless words spoken lazily and without thought, even words of love spoken without passion or meaning.
Does a simple “I love you” to your sweetheart convey the same thing as taking their face in your hands and speaking of your love for their radiant smile that permeates the air around them?
Not all words must come together to form a soigné of sophisticated wit, but the exquisite use of this gift of language we have been given by our God requires that we spend some effort to magnify that gift. We have the capacity to do so if we will but choose to begin. That grand “secret” that the prophet Alma taught is that which we send out shall return unto us again.
So let our words return to us as we send them out; never venomous with strife or vulgarity, but full of beauty, inspiration, love and majesty.
• Craig Lindquist is a Lihue business owner and regular contributor to The Garden Island.
