extracting precious words

     ^"Why has my pain been perpetual
         And my wound incurable, refusing to be healed?
         Will You indeed be to me like a deceptive stream
         With water that is unreliable?
      Therefore, thus says the LORD,
         'If you return, then I will restore you--
         Before Me you will stand;
         And if you extract the precious from the worthless,
         You will become My spokesman.
         They for their part may turn to you,
         But as for you, you must not turn to them.
         Then I will make you to this people
         A fortified wall of bronze;
         And though they fight against you,
         They will not prevail over you;
         For I am with you to save you
         And deliver you,' declares the LORD."(Jeremiah 15: 18-19) 

      ^{My Lord came to me in a flutter of realization: the beautiful, powerful truth about Jeremiah and his heart-to-heart with God. Is that what I had been missing in my prayer life, oozing to my everyday life, all these years?  My melancholy, my cynicism, my oft-repeated sorrows...was this the life I had built because I had refused to notice the heart of God saying, "extract the precious from the worthless, then you will become my spokesman?" Suddenly it all became clear: I, the complainer, had got it all wrong. God does listen, He does want to hear my heart, my troubles. But He is blessed--sing-out-loud, dance-for-joy blessed--when I choose to cling to the good words, even to speak the good words in His Book back to Him, for lack of nothing else sometimes. He doesn't require it, but He whispers it: "extract the precious from the worthless." So many words are worthless. So many, many of mine, worthless. And for me to speak them was self-administered poison; they hung in the air and clung to the pages, dripping self-pity, spinning a habit. Now extract the precious, "speak good words rather than worthless ones," and you will be His spokesman. To make leaders for the Kingdom of our children, we must teach them to speak the good words, declaring God's eternal virtues rather than their individual sorrows. The high road of words applies even to prayers. God is good. God loves to hear goodness!}