TOO MUCH CHITTY-CHAT
Several years ago my
friend Carrie and I were working on some paint samples in a loft area. One of
the plasterers working below would yell up to me, “Hey Chitty-Chat, how’s it
going?” I didn’t think I was that much of a talker, but found out that I am! I
like people; and I like conversation; it’s fun. But I have to beware, because
my chitty-chat can get out of control and roll over into vain babbling too
quickly and the more people, the crazier it gets.
It’s time for me to back
off a bit and monitor what’s coming out of my mouth. Once when I was in this
overly chitty-chat state, I actually put my respirator on at work to block my
vain babbling. It’s hard to hear someone when they’re talking behind a
respirator, so if I wanted to say something I had to take the respirator off,
and that made me think a lot more about what I was going to say.
There are only two places
in the Bible where “vain babbling” is used. Both of them are in the books of
Timothy, where the Apostle Paul is teaching Timothy how to be a good minister
for the Lord.
In Paul’s first letter to
Timothy, he says, “O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust,
avoiding profane and vain babblings” (1 Tim. 6:20). And in the second letter to
Timothy, Paul says, “But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will
increase unto more ungodliness” (2 Tim. 2:16).
In the first verse, the
word “avoiding” is the Greek word, “ektrepo,”
which means to “dislocate, deflect or turn away from.” In 2 Timothy, the word “shun” is translated from a different Greek
word that means “keep away from, turn around and go the other way, a bystander,
not a participator.”
Profane babblings mean ungodly
ones and “vain babblings” is the Greek word “kenophonia,” which means, “empty discussions, discussion of useless
matters, devoid of truth.”
Looking up these verses
on-line in the Strong’s Concordance has really given me pause. Here’s the link
if you want to take a look: https://www.blueletterbible.org/search/search.cfm?Criteria=vain+babblings&t=KJV&ss=1#s=s_primary_0_1
I know that the Lord
doesn’t want us to always be super serious and religiously pious. We see many
examples in the Bible of the Lord instigating fun and laughter, but there is a
fine line between having fun in conversation and going over into empty, ungodly
vain babblings.
Every once in a while we
can just check ourselves and take a listen to what we’re saying: Chitty-chat
with a purpose and know where to stop and turn away.
Love, Carolyn
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