To know God directly requires an interior balance and harmony. We must consider ourselves to be pilgrims yearning for a personal relationship with God. We need to maximize our communications with things of spiritual nature and minimize our communications about mundane worldly matters. Saint Seraphim warns us that the fire Christ came to light within us can easily be extinguished. He says the most common thing that cools this fire is unbridled conversation. These spiritual conversations lead us to great growth in knowledge of God.
Saint Seraphim says,
For the guarding of the inner man, one must strive to restrain the tongue from loquacious: "A man of understanding holds his peace (Prov 11:12), and "he that keeps his mouth keeps his life" (Prov 13:3).
Examine your conversations and determine if they involve the kind of discussion that will lead you closer to God. Those which have no spiritual value you should try to minimize as they can be a distraction. This means especially discussions that involve subjects or language you know would not be approved by Christ Himself. Think of Christ in dialogue with His disciples, His discussions on the steps of the Temple. These are the kind we should seek and all others we should minimize.
It is of upmost importance to not discuss our own spiritual life with no one other than our spiritual father.
As Saint Seraphim says,
Strive with envy means to keep to yourself the treasure of your spiritual gifts. Otherwise you will lose it, and not find it again...
Always act and speak glorifying God.
Reference: Little Russian Philokalia, Vol 1, p 28 - 29
