Habla Espanol?

I have had the benefit of working abroad among people who do not understand English for about a year now. They speak Spanish; which I do not speak very well...though I am slowly picking up enough words for the work that we do. We get through the days fairly well with a combination of words and signals.
However, we do not communicate hardly at all about anything other than work.  There is no small talk and no chit chat. There are no friendly conversations spent trying to get to know one another. The work we do is tiring and we normally do not have the energy it requires to communicate when you can't readily understand each other's words.
And this leads me to what I wanted to write about. There was some slight drama recently with another American coworker who did speak English. He and I spoke a lot getting to know each other and very quickly realized we had completely different views and opinions on just about everything. It led to some interesting personal conflict.  After the hullabaloo settled I wondered how it was that the first person in over a year that I had any issues with was a fellow American?  Then I thought something rather startling: our discussions had led us to develop such a strong opinion of each other that it led to strife.  We didn't work with each other long enough to experience each other.  Everything we knew or thought about each other was from our words.  Then I thought, I wonder what our relationship would have turned out to be like if we had never spoken but had only observed each other?
I have very good relationships with the multi-national men I work with and I realize now that the whole of their opinion and knowledge of me comes from strictly their observations of me. I have never had the ability to tell them about myself, to describe myself to them, or speak to them about what makes me me. They can only watch me and draw their conclusions from that.
It is no wonder then that our Lord advises us to tame our tongues, watch what we say, and to be accountable for what we do say. Do a search of the Word and see for yourself.  Over and over again we are warned of the danger, foolishness, and utter stupidity of letting words rule our lives. I am so thankful to have had this chance to see the positive power of holding my tongue (albeit circumstantially and not voluntarily) and simply letting my life actions speak for themselves.