Friday, June 4, 2021

FMF: Slow

Then Moses said to the Lord, “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”

But the Lord said to him, “Who has made the human mouth? Or who makes anyone unable to speak or deaf, or able to see or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now then go, and I Myself will be with your mouth, and instruct you in what you are to say.”
(Exodus 4:10-12, NASB)


I've often wondered what was wrong with Moses.  Did he have a stutter?  A stammer?  A lisp?  Coming from a family familiar with speech delays, it's been a quality of Moses that I've considered more than once.

When my sister was about three, she saw a speech therapist.  My family cherishes a cassette tape they have of her singing.  What family wouldn't cherish a little child singing at that age?  Did it matter that the sounds weren't exact?  Absolutely not.  It was endearing.

I myself struggled with pronunciation when I was small.  It wasn't yellow; it was yeh-whoa.  It wasn't a cheeseburger; it was a chee-buh-guh.

And when I became a parent, I discovered that both of my sons needed help with language.  When my oldest saw a speech therapist, she emphasized how much he spoke.  That wasn't news to me!  He still loves to talk.  A lot.

But with any of us - my sons, me, my sister, Moses - what was wrong with us?

In a word: Nothing.

For whatever reason, this was how God made us.



* * *
This post is a prompt from Five Minute Friday
and was written in approximately five minutes.
For more information, visit fiveminutefriday.com.
* * *


For another speech therapy anecdote, you can read about my son's first session here: Ka- Ka- King.


7 comments:

  1. When I met fiancee's family,
    I thought our love was 'bout to crater;
    they were from the hills, you see,
    and I needed a translator.
    "Y'all", that I could understand,
    and "fixin' to" as well;
    "toad-strangler", on the other hand
    was a kind of spoken hell,
    and everything was cattywampus,
    meaner than two-headed snake,
    then I had to make a fuss
    over grits that Mamaw'd make,
    and Papaw said he took a fright
    for Barb, 'cause I warn't wrapped too tight.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh yes, I've been there for sure! Gotta love those moments when you need a translator. Definitely did a lot of it for my kids. We watch some Australian programming and we have to turn on the closed captioning to understand what they say, but even so, we often have to look up expressions to know what they mean. Haha.

      Delete
    2. I have to admit that it went both ways...I tend to use Near East-British slang without thinking, and referring to Barb's Dad's small truck as the 'chota gharri' drew a few blank stares; they thought I had gone macnoon (which is 'nuts' in Egyptian Arabic).

      Delete
  2. Having speech challenges makes others around you slow down, while it can be frustrating at time it's a bit of a gift because we don't often give others our full attention in that level of intensity.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Folks recommended my lad see a therapist when he was young cause of how he said some words,,, but trying to find one... no help would give. So I decided time and patience and some hands-on teaching would get him through, and fortunately it did! I'm glad you all were able to find the help you needed. Visiting from FMF25

    ReplyDelete
  4. I wondered what Moses struggled with too, Amie. I wondered if it was internal lack of confidence or an actual speech impediment or a combination of the two. I'm glad your family received encouragement through speech therapy. My youngest three received such confidence through their speech therapy.
    Lisa, FMF #5

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love this passage too! I'm a speech therapist, and I also had a speech impairment with a slight lisp on S when I was a child. I think it's great that God uses ALL in building His kingdom! It doesn't matter if we are not perfect. We are chosen. Love this one! And, I love your snapshots at the right!
    Jennifer, FMF

    ReplyDelete