I sat down to ponder an amazing proverb from Scripture about using words well. As I reflected, I was struck by another maxim: use it or lose it. Using words well is a prime example of a key human ability now critically threatened through lack of practice. Two factors are contrary cultural habits and AI powered tools.

The proverb is: “Words appropriately spoken are like apples of gold on beds of silver.” (Prov 25:11) I haven’t seen gold apples on silver beds, but in my imagination it is quite beautiful. The maxim also fits with experience. We all have known the unique power of hearing words that convey just what we needed, even when we didn’t realize we needed it.

Aristotle points to the power of speech as indicating the social and relational nature of man. Only in human life do we communicate about good and evil in the deeper sense. Indeed, all significant human relationships are lived primarily—though not exclusively—through the meaningful and careful exchange of words.

But our cultural practices run contrary to this. To consider this subtle but crucial point we can ask: really, what are the general, accepted expectations about how we speak and write? Verbal communication seems largely directed toward promoting an image, selling something, or raw self-expression.

The fifteenth chapter of the book of Proverbs paints an astoundingly refreshing alternative. Consider a few lines strung together here:
A soft answer turns away wrath,
but a harsh word stirs up anger.
The tongue of the wise dispenses knowledge,
but the mouths of fools pour out folly.
A gentle tongue is a tree of life,
but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.
To make an apt answer is a joy to anyone,
and a word in season, how good it is!
The mind of the righteous ponders how to answer,
but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil.

Perhaps the most practical line is that the righteous man “ponders how to answer.” A similar point is conveyed in 18:13, “If one gives answer before hearing, it is folly and shame,” and 13:3, “Those who guard their mouths preserve their lives; those who open wide their lips come to ruin.”

We can promote in our communities and households, starting with ourselves, such an approach to verbal communication. We can guard our mouths and weigh all our words, that our tongues might be a tree of life.

Unto this end we should be aware of how AI powered tools have become a significant threat to our getting the practice we need in the written word. Probably most of us have not yet been tempted by artificial ‘assistance’ in writing the most important things that we write. But now is the time to stand and take notice: more and more AI powered tools are and will be available to short-circuit our pondering about “how to answer”—in whatever it is to which we need to give answer.

Already many are using these tools in some of their writing—perhaps it begins with writing technical reports and then moves to answering professional emails.

I am well aware these are deep waters with many factors in play. Here, in view of the profundity of the account in Proverbs of human speech, I wish simply to invoke the principle well-established both in neuroscience and behavioral wisdom: use it or lose it. And more, there is the closely related principle: practice develops capacity.

Central to the good life is developing the habit of careful reflection and formulation of words, unto the end of expressing with clarity that which it is fitting for me to express. To hand over to another (and to something non-personal, non-intelligent) any significant aspect of our use of words works to undermine this habit, and so also the truly human life.

It is our privilege and our office—demanded by human nature itself—to labor to develop and hone our verbal communication, for the highest of ends. ~ ~ ~

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John Cuddeback

Husband, father, and professor of Philosophy. LifeCraft springs from one conviction: there is an ancient wisdom about how to live the good life in our homes, with our families; and it is worth our time to hearken to it. Let’s rediscover it together. Learn more.