Slow to speak, slow to anger...
I'm thinking I should start a new, separate blog for the kinds of posts I've recently gravitated towards writing. The past few weeks have found me being a lot more contemplative, wanting to stand still for longer amounts of time and just think. As a new-ish mom, that can be hard, sure, but I'm fighting to maintain that because it feels SO urgent now, more than ever before, since I know I have a daughter who will be influenced by me in the coming years.
Maybe you could say it's this election season that's made me pause and reflect, but as a Christian, I know that I can't put all my eggs in that basket--there will never, ever be an individual that I believe I can put all my trust and hope in. We are all flawed and broken.
But I think--and it's not my intent to talk politics here, I was hoping to go in a different direction-- perhaps it's the strong reactions I've witnessed from both sides that have rocked me and sent me spiraling into a place where I just want to curl up in a ball and say, "Why?! Why are we like this??"
Maybe that's a discussion for a later time, but I wanted to keep today's thoughts brief with something that encouraged me, and that is the idea of delaying the desire to respond immediately to something you may feel is urgent; whether it be something that angers you, makes you sad, or even happy. I tend to be the kind of person who jumps to conclusions easily. I also tend to respond right away--emails, questions, presumed deadlines, etc.--without thinking through my answers too carefully.
Have you ever sent someone a message expecting an immediate response only to be miffed when you were left waiting...and waiting? You start imagining what the reasons are, and if you're like me, you might be negative in your presumptions:"they're just ignoring me...could they be any more rude?!" But maybe you later found out that there was a good reason for it--illness, family emergency, etc. and perhaps you breathed a sigh of relief at not jumping the gun.
Lately, I've been trying to put that into practice and to have the verse James 1:19, "...be quick to listen, slow to speak..." running through my head over and over again.
I know that I've probably wasted so many hours in the past mulling over what someone meant (or didn't mean) by an unanswered message, text or email only to discover (most of the time) that there was always more to the story. It's not always about me (or you)! And to keep that little nugget of wisdom--to listen more and speak less--close to my heart, I know will lend its benefits in more ways than I can possibly imagine.
So to tie it all together-- let's all be more quick to listen to each other and slow to respond in anger. Whether it be social media or over a heated discussion at Thanksgiving this Thursday--listening and contemplating and responding with careful thought can only prove to do more good than bad.
Maybe you could say it's this election season that's made me pause and reflect, but as a Christian, I know that I can't put all my eggs in that basket--there will never, ever be an individual that I believe I can put all my trust and hope in. We are all flawed and broken.
But I think--and it's not my intent to talk politics here, I was hoping to go in a different direction-- perhaps it's the strong reactions I've witnessed from both sides that have rocked me and sent me spiraling into a place where I just want to curl up in a ball and say, "Why?! Why are we like this??"
Maybe that's a discussion for a later time, but I wanted to keep today's thoughts brief with something that encouraged me, and that is the idea of delaying the desire to respond immediately to something you may feel is urgent; whether it be something that angers you, makes you sad, or even happy. I tend to be the kind of person who jumps to conclusions easily. I also tend to respond right away--emails, questions, presumed deadlines, etc.--without thinking through my answers too carefully.
Have you ever sent someone a message expecting an immediate response only to be miffed when you were left waiting...and waiting? You start imagining what the reasons are, and if you're like me, you might be negative in your presumptions:"they're just ignoring me...could they be any more rude?!" But maybe you later found out that there was a good reason for it--illness, family emergency, etc. and perhaps you breathed a sigh of relief at not jumping the gun.
Lately, I've been trying to put that into practice and to have the verse James 1:19, "...be quick to listen, slow to speak..." running through my head over and over again.
I know that I've probably wasted so many hours in the past mulling over what someone meant (or didn't mean) by an unanswered message, text or email only to discover (most of the time) that there was always more to the story. It's not always about me (or you)! And to keep that little nugget of wisdom--to listen more and speak less--close to my heart, I know will lend its benefits in more ways than I can possibly imagine.
So to tie it all together-- let's all be more quick to listen to each other and slow to respond in anger. Whether it be social media or over a heated discussion at Thanksgiving this Thursday--listening and contemplating and responding with careful thought can only prove to do more good than bad.
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