Last spring I went to LA and I went to a Los Angeles Clippers home game vs. the Lakers at the Staples Center. They share a home court. Ever since then I get weekly updates on tickets for upcoming events at the Staples Center...in LA!
They send great email messages. Floor seats for $20 (unheard of) for Clipper games, pre-sale for HUGE concerts and events, and a chance to by cheap season tickets. At least once a week I look at one of their emails and think...what the crap, I wish I lived in LA. Because I live in VA their emails don't do me any good. They don't do them any good either because I'm never going to take them up on one of their offers...yet they keep sending the emails. Those are the wrong words at the wrong time.
It's hard for me to do this, but I want to say the right words at the right time. Whenever I hang out with someone I want to bless them with the right words. I once heard a youth pastor tell a student, who didn't go to church, he shouldn't wear a particular shirt because the band wasn't Christ like. Wrong words at the wrong time for that student.
Sometimes I get so caught up in my life that I forget to even ask how someone else is doing. Sometimes I make a joke when that is the last thing a person needs to hear. Sometimes I force advice when all they need for me to do is shut up and listen. Sometimes I don't talk about God because I don't want people to think I'm forcing Him on them. It's hard to know what the right words to say are but I want to say them. Otherwise I might as well be telling people who live in VA about great tickets in LA. It wouldn't do anyone any good.
this is a great post rob.
ReplyDeleteit really makes me think about what i should say and when i should say it. I think the right words are also words that uplift people and not bring them down and i sometimes find it hard to do this all the time. but i plan on stopping and thinking before i say something now to see if it is the right thing to say at the right time.
great post! thoughtly words slip easily across the lips and are hard to recover once loosed. maybe i should try a muzzle. lol.
ReplyDeleteI definitely don't have good control over my words. It seems that they sometimes go right past my brain and straight to my mouth. I can't even count the number of times I said something and wished immediately that I could pull my sounds back in. You would think that I would learn eventually, but, alas, I continue to fail and to struggle.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I am SO guilty of this!
ReplyDeletei don't think we would be human if we weren't guilty of this. alot of time we find ourselves emersed in emotion rather than logic and reason. therefore it's no wonder we say before we think, conversation is vastly reactionary.
ReplyDeletegreat post and a good reminder to quit thinking about myself so much and truly listen to what others need from me
ReplyDeleteIt's easy to relate to Paul's description of the tongue as the part of the body that is most difficult to control.
ReplyDelete