On the Power of Emphasis

Our family has a kind of linguistic game we play with emphasizing certain words in a sentence to see how it sounds. I don't know if it was our original or just our favorite, but the question, "What are you doing in my closet?" invariably leaves us in stitches. Try it and you'll see what I mean.

WHAT are you doing in my closet?

What ARE you doing in my closet?

What are YOU doing in my closet?

What are you DOING in my closet?

What are you doing IN my closet?

What are you doing in MY closet?

What are you doing in my CLOSET?

Always good for a laugh.

The emphasis we put on words matters a great deal more than I think we realize sometimes. Take, for example, the phrase, "I'm sorry."  When you emphasize the first portion, "I'm," there is a chance that the person receiving the remark might believe that you are actually sincere. If you emphasize the second half however, "SORRY," you're much more likely to be taken as speaking sarcastically or as insincere at best.

The Book of Mormon has a scripture that says, "For the Lord God giveth light unto the understanding; for he speaketh unto men according to their language, unto their understanding (2 Nephi 31:3).  My daughter, recently arrived in the MTC preparing to serve her mission in Florida, was spoken to "in her language" so to speak. She was feeling overwhelmed by all that she had to learn and all that she felt she didn't know (that others seemed to). She was feeling a sense of panic that perhaps she had made a colossal mistake in choosing to serve; maybe she didn't have what it took to represent the Lord and preach His gospel. In this moment of silent alarm, she heard in her mind, "You aren't meant to do this alone. You have your companion but you always have the Lord. He will help you." Then, as some form of familial echo, she heard these words repeated:

HE will help you.

He WILL help you.

He will HELP you.

He will help YOU.

Through her tears, she clearly understood the message and was comforted. And so it is with us. He will help you.  ALWAYS.