Is Your Accent On the Right Thing?

When we moved into a tiny Italian village, we gained immediate notoriety as, The American Family. In fact, we were the only Americans in the area. We were an anomaly.

I could feel the tension rise every time I stepped into our little corner grocery store. When I pushed open the door, the shopkeepers looked up and a worried frown crossed their faces.

The problem often revolved around accents. Not so much the American accent which in itself confused them, but rather the kind that distinguishes one word from another by a tiny mark—a diacritic. That little line indicates inflection, vocal stress, emphasis, or even the slightest changes in tone. And as most language students quickly discover, the marks can completely change a word’s meaning.

È (is) vs. E (and)

Là (there) vs. La (the) or La (her).

‘Tè (tea) vs. Te (you)

Accents are an essential and painful humbling to the language learner.

With a slightly different pronunciation, a catch of fish (pésca) became peaches (pèsca) to my local store owner. Or peaches became fish. However, if I continued down that peaches and fish road, I eventually hit a red-faced potty-talk-mistake really fast.

I’m familiar with that road.

The white-aproned store owner with the wringing hands knew it too. That was why her eyebrows nearly touched with anxiety as I gingerly pointed to the peaches and obviously asked for something else. Every time she saw me coming she looked around for her husband, or maybe the back door.

Life also has its accent marks.

Sometimes we get stuck accenting the negative, the disturbing, and the irritating. We do this in relationships, circumstances, politics, and certainly matters of faith. In fact where we place our accent often obscures blessings that lie buried under the rubble of misplaced significance. They focus on what bothers not what pleases.

The Israelites on their way to the Promised Land, seemed to forget the miraculous escape from Egypt, the visual cloud and fire of God’s leading, and the dividing of the Red Sea. They forgot that God was taking them from cruel slavery to His Promised Land.

Oh my. How easily I also forget the journey God is taking me on is His.

Instead the Israelites accented all the stuff they didn’t like. Their stomachs rumbled and their homeless wanderings squelched all the amazing works of God. Like yo-yos, they shifted from praise to blame, amazement to doubt, and joy to tears. 

Whenever God slew them, they would seek him;

    they eagerly turned to him again.

They remembered that God was their Rock,

    that God Most High was their Redeemer. Psalm 78:34-35 (NIV)

November is an accent month. We accent thankfulness. We intentionally remember gratefulness. Because the Thanksgiving Holiday is designated for thanks, we manage to dig out something to be thankful for even though it may be shrouded by layers of sorrows.   

When only the bad of anything or anyone gets all the emphasis, the good bits are ignored. It adds up to discontent, sadness, and grumpiness.

Where I place my accents reveal what’s in my heart.

Like the Israelites on their way to the Promised Land, what I give prominence to also makes a big difference in how I journey. Where I place my accents reveal what’s in my heart. Share on X

If my relationship hovers on what is good about another, there will be much more joy in the day to day of that relationship. If my kitchen needs a new oven (and it does), but finances are tight, I can recognize the blessing of that old one that simply won’t give up the ghost. What I give prominence to also makes a big difference in how I journey Share on X

In the Old Testament story of Moses and the Israelites, God’s divine love for His people, despite their disobedience and grumbling, drew them back to Himself again and again. It became a cycle of short-circuited realizations that the Lord was worthy of all praise and thanksgiving, but returning again to whine and despair.  When their accent was on His goodness and His work, life had much more joy.   

That intentional tiny mark of our November thanks accents the Giver. For a short month or even just a day, we find perspective changes. Actions and feelings shift. Thanksgiving softens our souls, reveals divine blessings, and discovers again that God is at the helm when things are going good and when they are not.

Where does your accent lie this November?  Let’s practice putting the accent on gratitude not for a day but all month long. As the chill in the air increases, and the trees rain down their leaves, let’s take this season to intentionally mark each day with the accent of praise.