Updated Thursday, April 24, 2008

Bible Studies for Life lesson for May 11: Communicate

By Catherine Painter

Focal Passages: Deut. 6:4-9; Prov. 4:3-6; 2 Sam. 14:23-24, 28-33

Julie entered my class daily, threw down her books, and sulked. Her mother eventually telephoned me, asking why Julie became angry in chorus.

"Julie doesn't become angry," I explained; "she arrives angry."

"Julie is an angry person," her mother confessed.

Risking, I said, "Anger is learned behavior; from which of her parents did she learn it?"

After a long silence, she answered, crying, "You're right; her father relates to her in anger. I'll talk with him tonight."

The next day Julie entered class smiling. I sensed her parents had communicated with her in love.

King Solomon said, "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver" (Prov. 25:11). Words can either wreck and ruin, or revive and restore relationships. Parents who wage war with words scar their children. In contrast, parents communicating in love and encouragement condition their children for happiness. There's no better time and place to learn God's teachings than early in life in one's home (Prov. 4:3-6).

The Jewish father in Prov. 4:3-6 provides a good example by communicating to his son the same religious teachings he learned from his father. Our lesson contrasts the healthy relationship between them, to the strained relationship Absalom and King David shared (2 Sam. 14).

David was a successful king, but a failure as a father. Poor communication resulted, not only from David's neglect, but also from the poor example of his sin with Bathsheba. Though God forgave (Ps. 51), David reaped what he sowed. Absalom murdered Amnon for raping their sister, and suffered untimely death in battle, attempting to usurp his father's throne.

An unknown author contrasted styles of communication when he wrote: "I shot an arrow into the air; it fell to earth, I knew not where.

Long years after in the heart of an oak, I found my arrow still unbroken.

I breathed a song into the air; it fell to earth, I knew not where.

But long years after, in the heart of a friend, I found my song from beginning to end."

Good communication can remove arrows and replace them with songs. The world watches us. Whenever, by word and deed, our communication reveals our Christianity, we make a difference for God and His world.