Today has been interesting in terms of speaking the truth in love. What is that? What it isn’t is stuffing how you feel down inside, hoping it will disappear; gritting your teeth and assuming time will make whatever it is a moot point; saying the first thing you think of; or punching someone’s lights out. So what it is is saying your understanding of the truth, maybe as a clarifying question with no inflammatory words included like – always, never, idiot, and so on. It is praying first to make sure now is the right time to speak and that your emotions are cool enough to pull it off with gentleness. It is speaking in I messages, “I feel, I want, I did this, I need” rather than you messages, “You … ”
So about today. Had a great conversation with some of my grandsons, that I will keep to myself, but I’ll say that truthing it in love is a little frightening and sometimes complicated. Got home from grocery shopping in 100+ heat to hear my neighbor say he wants me to cut my shade tree down because it was lifting the deck of his pool and he’d sue us if someone feel over it. Anxiety level goes up. I could give you all the boring details, but what God impressed on me to say was, “I’ll work on it.” He was satisfied and I’d bought time to think the whole thing through.
I’m in the process of writing this blog and the phone rings and some guy wants me to contribute to yet another organization. Is hanging up speaking the truth in love? Maybe in this case.
What do you think about speaking the truth in love? Does it always end well? Does that matter?