The Tongue of Angels

If I give a bit of context, I think that this is a phrase that pretty much anyone can relate to. Even those who do not believe in God or angels have surely had the experience with something akin to what I mean by this phrase. It is those moments when someone says something, and it just reaches inside of you, it touches you, it heals you, it makes you feel special, makes you feel good. There are various times I've felt the tongue of angels could describe what people have done to me. Sometimes it is just someone saying I'm awesome or fun or amazing. It just makes me smile and feel good. It definitely described the feeling of laying in bed next to Stefanie, Mitera singing Nani Nanis to us. It often is a feeling when someone tells me that they love me. They speak with the tongue of angels.

With that setting...I had a discussion on my facebook the other day about swearing. I was frustrated and angry, and put up as my status "Sometimes I want to swear like a sailor...". I have not had strong feelings or an understanding of why not to swear, and when I get really frustrated, it seems like it would be so lovely to use these words. I walked away from that interchange wanting to figure out how I feel about swearing, to get off the fence. I know the church has recommended the use of "clean" language, but all the talks I could read about it still did not seem like compelling evidence. I guess it just wasn't anything that personally sank in to me.

And then I was looking up at my wall. Last year my personal theme for the year was to try and speak with the tongue of angels (which I was not very diligent about pursuing, but I did a little bit with it). Well I'll just copy to you what I have there, quotes from Jeffrey R. Holland:

"Heaven never seems closer than when we see the love of God manifested in the kindness and devotion of people so good and so pure that angelic is the only word that comes to mind. In this long eternal quest to be more like our Savior, may we try to be "perfect" men and women in at least this one way now - by offending not in word, or more positively put, by speaking with a new tongue, the tongue of angels. Our words, like deeds, should be filled with faith, hope, and charity, the three great Christian imperatives so desperately needed in the world today. With such words, spoken under the influence of the spirit, tears can be dried, hearts can be healed, lives can be elevated, hope can return, confidence can prevail."

If there is anything I want to do in the world more than anything, those last things are them: dry tears, heal hearts, elevate lives, give people hope and confidence.

While I was in that mood, I ended up calling someone I care a lot about a douche, which is a word I don't consider technically swearing, but a few hours, I felt really bad. I don't want to make people feel worse. I want to make people feel better. I want to spread love. I want to elevate lives. I want to speak with the tongue of angels.

I think of swearing. It doesn't really offend me, but never once has swearing made me feel anything resembling that feeling of the tongue of angels.

I don't expect to speak perfectly all the time, to always say uplifting and inspiring things, but I want to as much as I can. I don't want to damage the influence that I can have in the world.

And to all the angels in my own life, thank you. :) Your tongues have reached to my heart so many times, and even just the memories brings a smile to my face, and inspiration and determination to my soul.