As you might guess, after preaching in the neighborhood of 52 years I have many friends who are also preachers. I count my friends in different fields, preachers of all sorts, pastors, missionaries, evangelists, and special ministry aids to Christ.
One of my preacher friends of nearly 40 years, Bill Brown, sent a little piece to me:
4 Tips for a Happy Ending
· Live without pretending
· Love without depending
· Listen without defending
· Speak without offending.
Most problems involving personal relationships are either caused or exacerbated by failure in one or all of the above. The Bible addresses the importance of each of the above.
Pretending to be something you are not leads to internal misery and painful endings to what could be otherwise comfortable relationships.
Love that depends on the other loving back to the same degree of intensity is not the kind of love Christ has for us and will lead to sitting across the desk from a counselor and whining, “I really get nothing in return from him/her.” I am glad Jesus doesn’t use this phrase.
Listening and constantly interrupting to defend your position doesn’t give the speaker the chance to put his/her position on the table for consideration.
Deliberately calling others names designed to offend when speaking violates the rules of true civilized debate. “The facts Mam, nothing but the facts.” Joe Friday
Stephen’s classic sermon in Acts 7 is an organized chronology of facts, including the close.
Copyright © 2014 Larry Lilly
For IT services it's hard to do better than clicking Oral Deckard
One of my preacher friends of nearly 40 years, Bill Brown, sent a little piece to me:
4 Tips for a Happy Ending
· Live without pretending
· Love without depending
· Listen without defending
· Speak without offending.
Most problems involving personal relationships are either caused or exacerbated by failure in one or all of the above. The Bible addresses the importance of each of the above.
Pretending to be something you are not leads to internal misery and painful endings to what could be otherwise comfortable relationships.
Love that depends on the other loving back to the same degree of intensity is not the kind of love Christ has for us and will lead to sitting across the desk from a counselor and whining, “I really get nothing in return from him/her.” I am glad Jesus doesn’t use this phrase.
Listening and constantly interrupting to defend your position doesn’t give the speaker the chance to put his/her position on the table for consideration.
Deliberately calling others names designed to offend when speaking violates the rules of true civilized debate. “The facts Mam, nothing but the facts.” Joe Friday
Stephen’s classic sermon in Acts 7 is an organized chronology of facts, including the close.
Copyright © 2014 Larry Lilly
For IT services it's hard to do better than clicking Oral Deckard
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