Your Face Does All The Talking Before You Open Your Mouth

Have you ever thought about how expressive your face is? Have you noticed how, when speaking to someone, you can tell how your message is being received just by the look in the eyes, set of the mouth, perhaps moving of the head. We talk with our face, without ever opening our mouths. Our mouths can lie, but it's almost impossible to lie with your face.

I'll use my son Billy as an example of some different facial expressions to show how the face speaks before the mouth. In this pic, perhaps I had told Billy his bedroom smelled like a locker room. Notice the look in his eyes (skeptical) and the position of his mouth (never been in a male locker room have you? If you had, you'd know my room smells pretty good).




In this pic, you can see the eyebrows are also involved as well as the eyes and mouth. Here, I could have said "You must have raked the leaves in your dreams, because you certainly didn't rake any leaves in this yard." His expression is showing disappointment, mixed with disbelief, as if perhaps he's not sure if he dreamed the rake job or not. But he knows he's got a big rake job ahead of him.





Here we have high arched eyebrows, lots of white showing in the eyes, and slightly parted lips. Only thing I can think of is I asked him to do his imitation of "Wilson" the soccer ball face from the movie Castaway. Maybe every facial expression doesn't have a purpose......





Here we have scowling eyebrows, total displeasure in the eyes, nostrils flared, and the mouth starting to form the word "NO!!). Here I'm sure he's found out we are going to take him back to the beach for Spring Break.




Okay, so here we have a perfectly relaxed face, the eyes are showing contentment, and the mouth is smiling. He's obviously just received news that pleases him and he is in complete agreement with it. That could be anything from "You can do that chore tomorrow" to "You can have my car when you turn 16." (Neither of those things are actually true, they are just used for example's sake).



So, from these few examples you can see how expressive our faces can be. Too often I fear mine may show impatience, disinterest, or perhaps even anger. I want to purpose it in heart that my face shows compassion, kindness, and understanding when someone talks to me. Then, with God's help, I want those very attributes to come out of my mouth.