You Sound Just Like . . .

"Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone." Colossians 4:6

I recently sat and chatted with someone at a church function. As she and I talked, I kept having to remind myself that I was not talking to her mom because their voices, expressions, and mannerisms are so much alike.

On many occasions, my own mother takes on the voice of her sister. There's a sweet comfort to hearing that as her sister is now living with Jesus.

You might often hear someone compare your appearance to a family member or possibly even a celebrity, but has anyone ever said that your voice sounded like someone else's?

One of my goals as a Christian is for people to get my voice confused with Christ's. I want them to walk away from a conversation with me and say, "Her words are genuinely loving and gentle. She sounds just like what I would imagine Christ to sound like!"

So, ask me . . . has that ever happened to me?

ABSOLUTELY NOT!

I've been listening to my voice lately. What I've noticed is that there are many instances where my voice is the furthest thing from loving and gentle. Unfortunately, what I have noticed is a lot of sarcasm and frustration in my voice.

Paul letter to the Colossians instructs them to speak with grace and to strive for wholesome conversation. When you and I choose to allow frustrations to come out in our voice, we are sounding nothing like Christ. The only time in all of Scripture where we see Jesus raise His voice is due to the righteous anger He felt whenever the Temple was being used as a marketplace.

Christ never spoke in a condescending or sarcastic tone. Even when speaking to the Pharisees, He spoke in a manner that would make them think, not in a way that would crush their spirit.

I challenge you today to listen to your voice. Listen for tones that aren't pleasing to the person you are speaking to, and definitely not pleasing to the Lord. Make a commitment to strive to speak with love and grace, and not out of frustration or with sarcasm. Our words and our tone are crucial elements to showing the love of Christ to a lost world. If our voice sounds like the world's voice, then it definitely doesn't sound like Christ's.

Can someone mistake your voice for that of Christ's?

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