Creating Emotional Word Pictures

Communication skills are among the most important acquisitions a person can make. Among these skills is the ability to create a word picture that taps into the life experience of the person with whom you are interacting. One must ascertain, of course, what some of those life experiences are and this is done by careful listening and observing the interests or recent experiences of the other.

An historic example of the skilful creation of a simple word picture that created an emotional response that focused the attention of this nation on our political stance vis-a-vis the Soviet Union during the Cold War was President Reagan’s use of the phrase ‘The evil empire.’ This was done at the time the movie ‘Star Wars’ was being seen by millions of Americans. The people of this country could immediately connect to what this phrase implied. It didn’t take a long speech to convey what he meant and he got America on his side. Of course, Nikita Khrushchev, premier of the Soviet Union, a couple of decades before did the same thing banging his shoe on the table before the leaders of nations.

Jesus’ use of parables created the same unforgettable mental images in the minds of many of the people he was trying to teach. Who could forget the prodigal son (or his offended brother or welcoming father)?

Among the most memorable and clarifying images in Christendom were created by C. S. Lewis, an author who has had a great influence upon me.

It would pay all of us to develop the skill of creating word pictures, analogies, or metaphors that activate an emotional reaction in our hearer that gets him/her ‘on the same page of music’ with us.