Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” Genesis 11:7
There were a couple extra teenagers at my house a couple weeks ago, and I asked them if they wanted me to make them a smoothie. This is when things got a little complicated. One of the guys needed clarification on the whole smoothie thing. After I told him what I put in it, he proceeded to speak in a language that was unbeknownst to me while walking away. I used my brilliant inferring skills (meaning I totally guessed) that he was giving me an affirmative answer on the smoothie. He paid me no mind as a hollered after him, “I have no idea what you just said, but I’ll take that as a yes!”
Fast forward to the next time he’s at my house and we’re about to eat. I bring up our previous attempt at a conversation with my oldest standing there. Unfortunately, he wasn’t in the kitchen last time for translation help. Since I’m trying to expand my vocabulary, I asked for clarification on exactly what he was trying to say to me about the smoothie. I was figuring out how to use it in a sentence (best way to remember things). Although, I do suggest we know for sure what the meaning is behind what we’re repeating in the first place.
My oldest looked at his friend in quite the disgusted manner when he taught me the proper phrase with “Gucci” in it. That disgusted look turned more to a horrified face as he turned towards me. He seemed quite fearful I’d start using it on an everyday basis. The look said, “Just…no.” See, now I’m not only learning to interpret phrases I’ve never heard before, I’m expanding my knowledge on facial expressions.
You know I’m sitting here looking up the word “Gucci” in the urban dictionary, right? I’ve heard the brand Gucci, but who knew what I was missing out on! I’ve got to practice. Go ahead and ask me how I am. “Thank you for asking! Dude, it’s all gucci. By the way, your gucci coat is blingin!”
Alright, now you have to say, “Hey whats good with ya?”
My turn!! This is fun!!! I sure hope my boys don’t read this. Ahem…here goes! “Nuttin man im gucci.”
From what I’m seeing it’s usually a pretty positive word! You can’t deny that good, great, awesome, cool, and chill make us feel good when we hear them. I realize cool and chill aren’t as “warm and fuzzy” because I don’t like shivering; however, in this context I’ll take it.
On a whole other note, we’ve been having some crazy things happening here lately. The cicadas are making my mind spin with their noisy partying. It goes on all day long. I’ll keep the house shut up tight to drown out the noise, but nope…still there. They even fling themselves into the windows too. Thankfully the party stops at night.
Also, the weather has been wild. It’s been raining buckets that’s for sure. I thought it was April showers bring May flowers. I don’t remember anything about June showers! We’ve been dealing with storms and tornado issues too.
The other night the lights started flickering. I yelled for the hubby, and he let me know we were having a power surge. Why were we discussing it instead of taking action? I logically (fine…maybe not so calmly and rationally) said, “Everything’s going to be ruined! Throw the breaker!”
Listen, I don’t even know where that really came from. What does throw the breaker exactly mean? Why wouldn’t I just say to turn off the breaker? I know things can trip a breaker. Throwing the breaker is something that people say, right? Can a person throw a breaker? I don’t know…don’t ask me. It just came out of my mouth and certainly made sense at the time.
My hubby wasn’t too amused at my mini meltdown. What made him get uptight since I was trying to lessen the chances of disaster in our home? If the surges were taking place, I knew what kind of damage could be done to our electronics, appliances, and anything else that was plugged in. Timing was of vital importance!
It dawned on me that the problem wasn’t with the storm, it was with my doom and gloom words. When we spout phrases and words without thinking about what we’re saying, damage ensues. I could use the weak excuse that he was being too sensitive, but it probably wouldn’t help my case.
Even with the dips and surges in the electricity around me, my hubby doesn’t want the dips and surges in me. He much prefers when I’m stable and use my words wisely. It wasn’t so much what I was saying, it was how I was saying it…the energy surrounding it.
I might not have understood what was coming out of the mouth of my son’s friend, but I could guess it was a positive thing. I might not have even understood what I was saying with the whole breaker thing, but it certainly didn’t feel like it was for the good of our house to my hubby at the time.
Really, the fault was on both of us. If I would’ve thought about how it might sound better and not put him on the offensive, I would’ve said, “That’s one crazy storm happening out there, and I’d hate for anything to be ruined. How can we lessen the chances for damage here, oh gucci hubby?”
If anything, it might’ve confused him enough to not be annoyed! On the other hand, if he would’ve looked at it from my perspective, I just wanted to minimize any damage from the surge. Unfortunately, I ended up creating more damage than I was afraid of. My words were really just coming from a place of fear.
Let’s try to look beyond what we don’t understand, whether words or actions, to see the meaning behind them. The reason for confusing the language in scripture was for a specific purpose. God was trying to get Noah’s ancestors to go separate ways. Unlike then, today there’s too much misunderstanding and confusion between people.
I challenge you to pull out the dictionary, look at the facial expressions, and truly try to understand what’s behind the words you hear. I know I’m going to try looking beyond what is said that I don’t understand, plus not be so uptight when the electric starts flickering. Oh, everything was fine at our house…just my negativity.
Today, throw your breaker before the urge to say something harmful gets a chance to damage and let love be your translator!
