Ashley Abercrombie on Language

“Language is a seed that germinates inside the darkness of our hearts and minds. It will bear fruit at some point: rotten, bitter, nourishing, or sweet.” 

Ashley Abercrombie from “Love is the Resistance”

I really enjoy Ashley’s page so when she announced that she had a book coming out I preordered it pretty quickly. Having read through most of it, I really appreciate her message and the larger message of how we are to treat each other especially as Christians!

I think a lot of us are tired of the verbal eviscerations we see not only online but in our own lives. Our discourse has changed from a marketplace of ideas to a battlefield where we are to defeat our enemies by all means possible. Friends and acquaintances battling it out in the comment sections of each and every hot topic of the day, news channels that have picked sides and actively engage in trench warfare, husbands and wives screaming insults at each while scaring the life out of their kids tremble in fear; it’s so exhausting. 

I feel like Ashleys book gives a voice to this exhaustion. I think more and more we could use more empathy and less words. There are a multitude of proverbs that speak to this exact thing; my favorite being:

Proverbs 15:1 A gentle answer turns away anger, but a harsh word stirs up wrath.