The Art of Conversation

As Southerners, being sociable is in our DNA. As a Southern girl, I was taught the art of conversation from an early age. As a Southern grandmother, I’m serious about passing along what I’ve learned to our grandchildren.

A yearly highlight is dinner at a favorite restaurant with three of our granddaughters. It’s an occasion we don’t take lightly. We “dress up”, as we say in the South, planning our outfits in advance. We prepare questions we want to ask others so we can learn things about them we’ve never known, maybe things they’ve never known about themselves.  Good conversation starters are key.

The best part of conversation is the give-and-take. We don’t know what the other person is going to say. We notice things we enjoy as we converse. We are curious, we ask questions, we share real things. We listen hard because the person matters to us. They want to know us and we want to know them. Real connection, real understanding brings us joy.

Why does this matter, you might ask?  In a world where communication happens in nanoseconds using acronymns (LOL, BTW, LMK, IDK), why would well-crafted questions and slow, thoughtful answers be anything of value or a good use of time?

Why, with limited ways to influence the next generation toward things of importance, would a grandmother prioritize these lessons?

I want my grandchildren to learn the art of conversation so they can talk to God.

The good news is that God has provided unlimited conversation starters in His Word. Across the pages of Holy Scripture, God tells us what He is like as He reveals important things about Himself, but He also tells us about ourselves. He uses His Word to read our hearts, and then He whispers intimate truths to encourage, convict, inspire, stir up, and fill the empty places at the core of our being.

Since we started these annual dinners, this teacher of conversation (AKA Nana) has been enrolled in an unintended arts academy that has changed me. It has changed the way I talk to God and the way I understand myself as I listen to Him. As one of the authors of Eighth Day Prayers, I’ve learned to soak in Scripture, to listen for a word or a phrase intended just for me. I’ve learned to offer back to the One who started the conversation the things He wants me to know and the things He’s reading in my heart. I’ve been pulled into the world of God’s Word and have found new landscapes of breathtaking beauty as I rest in His presence and sense new life in the Holy Spirit within me.

If conversation is an art and the most accomplished artists spend time working on their craft; if in our DNA we were made to engage in deep conversation with the God who made us so we can really know Him; then soaking in Scripture, using God’s Word as the starting place for real engagement with Him, opens a door to eternal joy.

Won’t you pull up a seat at the table the Lord has set for you and begin a conversation with Him? It’s an occasion you don’t want to miss.