COMMUNICATE

Ok...I have this thing, that whenever I hear the same thing come from at least three different sources, that I think God is saying "LISTEN!"

The buzzword for the day? Communicate! I once had a martial arts instructor that told me all the time in broken english "you must learn to relax!" Relax? I thought I was relaxed! What do you mean relax?

This is the way I am about this word COMMUNICATE! Communicate? I thought I was communicating! What do you mean communicate?

So it is, that we hear this often in marriages. One or the other party says, "You're not communicating!" What? I thought I was communicating! An endless argument is it not?

So, I strive to learn the art of communication.

• Jas 1:19 "Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger..."
• Pro 25:11 "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver. "

And still, I strive to learn to communicate. I've even taken courses on communicating, and I still need to learn how to communicate. Something that I have learned, is that in communication is also the perception of the hearer. So, maybe what God is telling us all is something that I thought I had learned a long time ago (but evidently haven't - or at the least have forgotten) -- "ENGAGE YOUR BRAIN BEFORE DISENGAGING YOUR MOUTH!"

Then again, I have begun to think Prov.17:28 "Even a fool, when he is silent, is counted wise, and he who shuts his lips is counted as a man of understanding."

Perhaps silence is the better side of this art of communication?

Jim