PODCAST
How You Say It
November 15th, 2020
Proverbs 15:1-8
A wise friend of mine gave me some advice about raising godly children in the parsonage. He said, “I tell my kids, you can say whatever you need to say to me, but how you say it is not up for discussion.” He allowed his children the space to say what they had to and now all four of his kids are currently serving the Lord.
Many times it’s not necessarily what we say that causes confusion, misunderstanding, and hurt. It’s how we say it. This is why text messages and emails sometimes cause so much trouble: you can’t hear the tone in a text. This is also why people use emojis (digital images in text). It’s amazing how that little smiley face can lighten up a message. The same is true when we are face-to-face. It’s amazing how a soft tone and a smile can defuse a potentially tough conversation.
As a parent, I’m still working on this one. I need to guard my tone just as much as my pre-teen son. If we can, we’ll discover, “The soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit” (v.4).
Author: Mark Hendrickson
Tags: Communication, Parenting
