Conversation Hearts

Ever since I was in kindergarten, I’ve loved the colorful candy hearts that would appear in stores each February. Then on the 14th we would run around the class delivering our surprises with all their 'personal' messages.

You’re my Valentine.

Will you be mine?

So cute, especially how sheepishly we would steal a glance at the object of our deepest affection at five or six years old.

This morning I brought a box of candy hearts to three of my grandkids as they were getting ready for school. Small as it was, the four year old was dancing and twirling in her red dress singing thank you’s and I had the sweetest hug from the six year old. What really surprised me was my nine-year old grandson, a Patriots sports fanatic, who gave me a big bear hug and then found a heart that says, “LOVE YOU” to give me in return!

No matter how old you are, you never grow tired of hearing that. Nor, of receiving a gift—no matter how small—when it conveys such a sweet message. Sugar-coated or not, it says, I care about you. You’re special to me.

Then I started to think. If all our words were stamped on little candies, what would they look like?

What the heck?
Get lost!
I don’t care!

Do I even express my love to the people I care about? We should make our words count, using them to add and enhance relationships rather than to drain or deplete them.
“Our words should be seasoned with salt, to minister grace to the hearers.”

Funny thing, after a lifetime of seeing and enjoying them, I never knew that candy hearts had another name. Conversation hearts! So named, I suppose, with the intention of starting or even replacing a conversation. But when “conversation” was used in Scripture, it didn’t merely refer to the words we speak. In the King James translation, it meant your whole way of life.

Ephesians urges us to “put off our former conversation,” and speaks of immoral behavior. In modern translations such as the NIV, it says we should change our former way of life. Philippians adds, “Our conversation is in heaven.” which was later translated, “our citizenship is in heaven.” This puts another spin on the term entirely.

True conversation entails what I believe and how I live.  From a Biblical perspective, my conversation tells who I am. My words are a sign of where I belong!

We should ask ourselves then, What is the heart of my true conversation, and is it sweet to God? Do my words reveal that I am a citizen of heaven?

"...speaking the truth in love...in all things... grow up into him... that is, Christ."
"...put off your old self...and put on the new self created to be like God in righteousness..."
"...put off falsehood and speak truthfully..."
"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful... that it may benefit those who listen."  --from Ephesians 4