Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Having a language pure and undefiled

I was studying Moses 6 about Adam and Seth and something struck me about this verse:
And by them their children were taught to read and write, having a language which was pure and undefiled. (Moses 6:6)
The first thing I thought of when I read that was all the things I had heard people speculate about the pure Adamic tongue and how we tend to yearn to know that and speak it and want it brought back. We’ve wondered what it would be like to speak it, what it would be like to have such strength of expression that it would overpower others just for them to read our words, just as Moroni was overpowered by the written words of the brother of Jared. You’ve probably thought this, and I know I have.

But today as I read this I began to wonder, why can’t we make our own language “pure and undefiled”? I started to think about what it would take for that to happen. Yes, English isn’t the Adamic tongue, but it is what we’ve got to work with at the moment, so why can’t we make that pure and undefiled?

So I started to think about what it might take to make our language pure and undefiled. Maybe it’s how we use our words that really makes a language that way. Wouldn’t speaking with both honesty and charity purify our language? Wouldn’t speaking with justice and mercy purify our language? Wouldn’t sharing the gospel purify our language? Wouldn’t expressing faith and trust (instead of doubt and distrust) purify our language?

What kind of things can you think of that we can do to make our language pure and undefiled?

2 comments:

grego said...

Ah, the idea of *intent* affecting language... Good!

Regina said...

I think you are right: It is the content of what you say that makes a language deep and beautiful. As thought form sentences and messages it seems very imporatant to take good care of what you say.

Regina