The Gift of Speech

I'm sitting here running thoughts through my mind like everyone does. And wondering how beautiful the gift of speech is, and how integral it is in human nature.

I see my wife chatting with her girlfriends all the time on her phone through whatsapp. When she's not doing that she's talking with me and other people, a very social and outgoing person who is always laughing and smiling and worrying about her family.

Same with my kids. We love talking with each other about everything. I try and take time to take a walk with each of them each week, and with my wife as well. I've noticed that just walking with them opens them up and they tell me all kinds of things they wouldn't have bothered to if we hadn't taken the time together.

And I do that with a few special friends as well. I try and show up so they can talk about things, and I can talk about things. And just those little moments, perhaps little but often form such strong bonds.

Then I look at the internet and see all of the interactions with people online. I talk with strangers all the time on different social media platforms, whether it be a comment on a news website, or a Facebook post, or a YouTube video, or even on a website like this that is made to get people together to communicate.

And I know that we have a wonderful and beautiful gift of speech.

And then there are people who abuse it, who belittle, use sarcasm, troll, and bully others with their words. And that saddens me.

The gift of speech which is innate to our very nature can be used to save and heal, and to tear down and destroy. There is a Proverb in the Bible that says "see how small a fire it takes to set a great forest ablaze."

So I remember reading about how wonderful our gift of speech is, and had to go back and dig it up, it was years ago I read about it.

I read through it again and still find it marvelous:

Other parts of the brain also contribute to our uniqueness. Behind our prefrontal cortex is a strip stretching across the head—the motor cortex. It contains billions of neurons that connect with our muscles. It too has features that contribute to our being far different from apes or other animals. The primary motor cortex gives us “(1) an exceptional capability to use the hand, the fingers, and the thumb to perform highly dexterous manual tasks, and (2) use of the mouth, lips, tongue, and facial muscles to talk.”—Guyton’s Textbook of Medical Physiology. Consider briefly how the motor cortex affects your ability to speak. Over half of it is devoted to the organs of communication. This helps to explain the unparalleled communication skills of humans. Though our hands play a role in communication (in writing, normal gestures, or sign language), the mouth usually plays the major part. Human speech—from a baby’s first word to the voice of an elderly person—is unquestionably a marvel. Some 100 muscles in the tongue, lips, jaw, throat, and chest cooperate to produce countless sounds. Note this contrast: One brain cell can direct 2,000 fibers of an athlete’s calf muscle, but brain cells for the voice box may concentrate on only 2 or 3 muscle fibers. Does that not suggest that our brain is specially equipped for communication? Each short phrase that you utter requires a specific pattern of muscular movements. The meaning of a single expression can change depending upon the degree of movement and split-second timing of scores of different muscles. “At a comfortable rate,” explains speech expert Dr. William H. Perkins, “we utter about 14 sounds per second. That’s twice as fast as we can control our tongue, lips, jaw or any other parts of our speech mechanism when we move them separately. But put them all together for speech and they work the way fingers of expert typists and concert pianists do. Their movements overlap in a symphony of exquisite timing.” The actual information needed to ask the simple question, “How are you today?” is stored in a part of your brain’s frontal lobe called Broca’s area, which some consider to be your speech center. Nobel laureate neuroscientist Sir John Eccles wrote: “No area corresponding to the . . . speech area of Broca has been recognized in apes.” Even if some similar areas are found in animals, the fact is that scientists cannot get apes to produce more than a few crude speech sounds. You, though, can produce complicated language. To do so, you put words together according to the grammar of your language. Broca’s area helps you do that, both in speaking and in writing. Of course, you cannot exercise the miracle of speech unless you know at least one language and understand what its words mean. This involves another special part of your brain, known as Wernicke’s area. Here, billions of neurons discern the meaning of spoken or written words. Wernicke’s area helps you to make sense of statements and to comprehend what you hear or read; thus you can learn information and can respond sensibly.

From the book titled: Is There a Creator Who Care About You? pp 55,56.

Well that's it just thought I'd express my thoughts about this wonderful gift we have.

And isn't it amazing that even though I am not literally speaking anyone on the internet visiting this webpage that can understand the language is able to read this information and make their own thoughts on the matter.

Use speech to upbuild and fortify each other.

Say I love you to the people you love each and every day. And ask for forgiveness when you mess up. These little things make life worth living.

a reply to: loveofneighbor

Speech is a powerful motivator of this one is to be certain.

It was nice to read a pleasant thread, focusing upon our ability to build each other up and help unite against the struggles we face!

Thought this would be a nice contribution to your thread, considering it is the greatest speech ever!

originally posted by: elementalgrove
a reply to: loveofneighbor

Speech is a powerful motivator of this one is to be certain.

It was nice to read a pleasant thread, focusing upon our ability to build each other up and help unite against the struggles we face!

Thought this would be a nice contribution to your thread, considering it is the greatest speech ever!

Agreed. That speech by Charlie Chaplin I've seen before, and aside from its obvious propagandist tone towards democracy (during a time of fascism and communism on the rise world-wide) I find many of his words very true. Humankind should unite. This is what the social media platforms on the internet tell us.

The worlds wars are not fought because the majority of people want them. There are occult powers that maneuver and control things in this world. They are being exposed. And will be fully and utterly exposed shortly. For nothing can remain hidden that is not brought to the light.

And only evil wants to hide in the dark anyway. Righteousness comes to the light to let its works be revealed to all.

Still here, for anyone else wanting to talk.

You have the gift of speech. Don't you?