Where Do You Communicate From?

 Happy Friday, Friends!

I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day as a glorious new begins to dawn in my Sweet Home Alabama! I simply love the dawning of a new day, seeing the world come alive again. No matter what yesterday contained, this day, TODAY, brings hope and opportunity…we simply must choose it! 😊

Last week I had a phenomenal experience. I was copied on an email exchange between two people – kind of like eavesdropping on a conversation but I was invited in by one of them. Anyways, it wasn’t a pleasant exchange. They are both great people and it was very clear that they were both very upset. Here was the ‘aha moment;’ the one who escalated the conversation was communicating from their position of brokenness…I could so clearly see it. And as I thought about that exchange my spirit convicted me – don’t we all communicate from what is inside of us?

Where do you communicate from? Do you communicate from faith or fear? From adequacy or inadequacy? From love or hate? From strength or weakness? This could go on and on…we are all communicating from somewhere.

Let me be fully transparent and give you a personal example. As I have thought and prayed about where I communicate from, I have realized that when something scares me, my tone is very harsh, and I am very direct. Am I trying to be mean, rude, or nasty? No, I am simply communicating from fear. Last week our family was in Destin, FL for a week…such a blessed time! One day we went riding Wave Runners. As you, and I, would expect, one of the boys decided to try to splash my Beautiful Bride and I with their Wave Runner. Look, I watched the video…we are supposed to maintain a safe riding distance! The only problem is it is nearly impossible to splash someone from “a safe riding distance.” So, what does my guy do? Well, he comes flying up at a very UNsafe riding distance, scaring the [insert your own word here] out of me! So, I yelled at him, told him how stupid that was, and told him to never do that again. And then I immediately felt remorse. We are out here having fun, I got the heck scared out of me, and then I spoke in a way I would not normally speak. I had communicated from fear. Now, I am not saying I was wrong for being upset, but I digress… 😊

I want to challenge all of us to really think and pray about this one. Another example of, “what’s in the well always comes up in the bucket.” I can have every intention of speaking positive, uplifting, encouraging words however if what is really inside is hurt, broken, challenged, etc., I can have all the intentions in the world, I will fail every time.

I think, for me, this also puts a little more perspective around “hurting people hurt people.” Does not mean they want to or intend to…simply means that what is inside of them is hurt. Not easy to hear, pretty easy to understand and see. Wisdom would be to give the same grace we would want if we were in the same situation.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you or your family. I will always help you any way I can. You can reach me at kevin@whatwillyourinfluencebe.com.

Have a great day, a wonderful weekend, please cherish your precious families, and please stay well!

Kev