I love GIFs!

Don’t you? They seem to capture our emotions and feelings in a way that mere words simply cannot. In fact, my siblings and I (along with my wife) are all part of a text messaging group through WhatsApp. We could literally go all day sending each other nothing but different GIFs. Sometimes our “GIF battles” get pretty hilarious, and crazy, but I love it!

But let me encourage all of us…In a GIF world, don’t lose your voice. That is to say, don’t lose the power and precision of your words. Yes, it’s true that most of our communication comes from our non-verbal expressions, but words are important and can give direction and clarity to our non-verbal expressions. Our friends and family need to not only know what we’re feeling (this is where emojis and GIFs are incredibly helpful), but they also need to know what we’re thinking (this is why our words matter)…For instance, you may send a sad GIF to your buddy like this one…

Which is super helpful in describing what you’re feeling, but it doesn’t explain why you’re feeling that way. So, here is where words are incredibly useful…

You get it, right? GIFs help us communicate feelings, but words help us communicate the thinking behind the feelings. Yes, words are still very important in our GIF world. So use them! And let’s be sure to use our words carefully, confidently, and with Christlikeness…Okay?