A Heart-to-Heart Talk - Martin Wiles

For I hope to visit you soon and talk with you face to face. Then our joy will be complete. 2 John 1:12 NLT

I remember it hung on a doorknob.

My parents believed in corporal punishment. They thought the Bible taught it, and they believed and practiced the Bible’s teachings. They never abused me by using it, nor did they ever apply it to parts of my body they shouldn’t have. But they believed a good spanking was in order when I had willfully disobeyed them.

My dad’s favorite tool was a black belt from which he had removed the buckle. As a young boy, I remember the belt hanging on the doorknob of his and Mom’s bedroom. When I willfully broke one of the house rules, he and Mom used it. 

But according to Mom, things differed when I was a noticeably young boy. If I did something wrong, Dad took me into the bedroom and closed the door. The next thing she heard was crying. She assumed Dad was whipping the tar out of me. In reality, Dad had never used the belt. Talking to me did the trick. I had such a tender heart that the talk broke my little heart.

Heart-to-heart talks don’t always work, but they did on some occasions with me—and that’s what the aged apostle wanted to have with those he wrote to. Some things are better said in person rather than through another form of communication.

Sending a text or Snapchat—or firing off an email—has greatly reduced heart-to-heart talks with those we know. In some cases, we have no other choice—and communication this way beats waiting two weeks for a letter to arrive—but often these forms become our choices of communication when they don’t have to be.

Somehow, I can’t imagine that Adam and Eve would have chosen a text or Snapchat from God over what God chose: walking and talking with them in the garden in the cool of the day.

Some things mean more when said in person. Love is spelled TIME. So when you can, chose the in-person heart-to-hearts over the more convenient methods of communication.

Find someone today to have a heart-to-heart with.

Prayer: Father, move us to seek out heart-to-heart encounters with others as You do with us.

Tweetable: Do you need a heart-to-heart talk? 

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