Or in other circumstances where people are gathered, there is no one breaking the ice, so you need to talk to entertain, because this is what will put people at ease and relax them. In some situations, the need might be to clear the air of a strained or awkward atmosphere so, you need to fill in with interesting and informative talk that pushes away the empty spaces. Let’s think about three types of small talk. There are many kinds of small talk, and we need to be sensitive to the need of the moment so that we can be of real help in bringing grace to a situation. Every conversation can be a chance to either edify a person in the body of Christ, or to communicate the love we know from the Lord to non-Christians, always with the hope that we can speak the Gospel to them, remembering Paul’s words, “We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.” There is power in the love of God as it touches people’s lives through you.Įvery conversation can be an opportunity to love someone on behalf of the Lord. When you love people and your words express a genuine interest in them, they can sense it. Love can loosen your tongue so that you are able to express to people that you care about them, that you are interested in them. Love can make you talkative enough to reach out to a person. She made me feel like I was important, and worth so much.” When she died, one of my friends said to me, “Whenever I talked with your mother, she focused on me and paid attention to what I said in a way that made me feel like I was the only person in the world. The kind of small talk that does this is a legacy my mother left to me.
In Isaiah 43:4, “God says to Israel, and therefore by extension to us, “You are precious in my sight.” With our words, we can help people see themselves as God sees them, valuable and precious in His sight. It can make them sense that they are important. It can make them sense that they are valued. Small talk can be about loving others, about touching them with the grace of God that is in you. Small talk can put people at ease. And as lovers of God, we are called to imitate Him and be lovers of people-those in the Body of Christ, and the lost of the world. If we’re Christians, we are lovers of God.
Jesus sitting on a hill artclip full#
He said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” Jesus expresses His love for these wicked lost people with words full of compassion and tenderness. In Luke 19, Jesus looked out over the lost city of Jerusalem– and he wept over it.
Our third love is one for people in the lost world. In John, Jesus asks Peter three times, “Do you love me?” Each time Peter answers, “Yes, Lord.” And every time Jesus says, “Then tend my sheep.” Loving Jesus means loving His sheep.
Out of this first love flows our second love–love for the people in the body of Christ. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” That’s the greatest commandment. Small talk can be about building ourselves up in others’ eyes-or small talk can be all about loving others.Īs Christians, our lives are called to be characterized by a three-fold love.įirst, we are lovers of God. People think I’m intelligent and well-read. You take leave of a group and say to yourself, “They thought I was witty and smart. Why do you want to cultivate the art of small talk? Small talk can be about loving ourselves, it can be about self-aggrandizement, it can be for self-glorification. Ephesians says, “Let no unwholesome word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.” Ephesians 5 places the wrong kind of talk in the category of serious sins: “But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.” Our small talk must be godly talk.Īs Christians, the key to successful small talk is motivation. As Christians, God’s Word is the first place we need to go to learn about any kind of talk. So what do we mean by small talk? Small talk is not petty talk. Small talk is not silly talk.
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