When I was a child my mother had a copy of the Gettysburg Address hanging on our wall. I couldn't even read at the time, but whenever I asked Mom she would stop whatever she was doing (even when I'm sure she was very busy) and would read it out loud to me. Sometimes I used that to prolong my bed time. But even during those times, she would still read it to me, because she knew it was more important than going to bed on time. I didn't understand most of it, but hearing her say the words I knew it was something special. Something almost sacred. I suppose because she thought of it that way, it came across when she spoke out the words.
Once, when we had a kitchen full of company, someone remarked about the Gettysburg Address hanging on her wall. It was right there in the kitchen. She believed those words weren't only for special occasions but for every day. So it was where we would see it every day. She suddenly started to speak it out loud for them, as she had done for me so many times. When those powerful words were spoken out with her gentle and intense voice, everyone became silent and still. To me they looked the way adults looked when they prayed. A couple people had actually closed their eyes, as if they were soaking it in and it was feeding a hunger deep inside them.
I've come to understand how important the spoken word is. Not only do we remember things better if we speak them as well as read them, but it penetrates our hearts more and also effects those around us. But this can be a force for bad as well as good, depending on what you are reading/speaking.
"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." Ephesians 4:29
That's why a few years ago I started to read portions of the Bible out loud too. Even if I'm the only one in the room. And they do reach me on a deeper level.
So do yourself, and perhaps others, a favour and whenever you see something quoted here in my blog, take the time to read it out loud. (Which I'm sure you have already done with the Bible quote written above.) In the "olden days" (before TV) families would gather around and someone would read out loud from a book. Or else they would all take turns reading.
Whether it's the Bible or "David Copperfield" or "Green Eggs and Ham", you will all be better for the time you've spent together. Because ultimately that's what all words are about. Sharing from one person to another. The purpose of having language in the first place is to bring us together. So let words do their job.
And, for your edification and encouragement, I present the Gettysburg Address for you to read ALOUD. I place it here to honor my mother, Lincoln, the people he talks about and ... you.
"Ahem.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." ~ Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863
** NOTE: What is interesting and ironic is when Lincoln says, "The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here," when that's exactly what has happened. I think it takes both: the sacrifice of life and the words to remind us what that life was sacrificed for.
Just as in THE Book. The Bible. It is full of people who made sacrifices for faith and God and He made sure it was written down for us, so that we would remember and understand all these years later. And the words in the Bible are about the ultimate 'bringing together'. God and man reunited for forever.
"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us." John 1:14
