I have come to love using texting... so much in fact, that I prefer to text to conversing over the phone. There's nothing quite like being able to zip off a text to someone and go about your next task for the day. Comparing that to having to dial a phone, hope the person you're calling answers and if they don't, then you have to hope that their voicemail is set up and if it is, then you have to hope that their voicemail box isn't full, because they haven't bothered to either check nor erase their messages, so there's no room for your message, then you have to call back again anyway. A text is so much easier.
The problem is, when you try to use texting as your main source of communication in a long distance relationship, it's sorely lacking. It creates misunderstandings that are never even close to what you intended and then you get taken for being the biggest jerk in the world, when all you really wanted to say was, I'm sorry and I love you.
Texting is handy when you both can't hear worth a hoot and thus phone conversations are difficult at best, however the text has to rely on a number of assumptions that your loved one may not actually have about you. Ideally, (s)he would have picked up on your heart at some point and come to realize you are not the kind of person who would do or say X, Y or Z, but the reality is, when you allow past hurts to infiltrate your thinking, you cannot begin to see what your significant other's heart truly is and it clouds your reactions to perceived slights. "Knee jerk" reactions are the norm when that cloudiness is winning over your heart and mind.
Thank God that the Holy Spirit can change all of that in us and through Jesus Christ, our hearts and minds can be made new, but you know ... we have to allow Him to work in us as well. Too many times, we don't or can't.
When my daughter Emily visited Israel this June, we used Face Time once to talk. What an amazing app that is. We could look at each other on our tablets and talk, though we were half the world apart. That is one of the most helpful apps I've ever used. As neat as that app is, in relationships, nothing serves better than face-to-face time. Time spent in conversation, in getting to know each other and learning each others heart is so essential. Nothing can take the place of that. Misunderstandings still take place, but there's so much more that comes from body language, tone of speech and all of the other things we use in communication, that texting, emailing and such cannot convey. It's unfortunate, but true. Once the damage is done from it, it's nearly impossible to fix.
Praise God for His mercies, though, for they are new every morning.
