Greetings Prayer Warriors,
Recently my company offered its employees a class on
“Interpersonal Effectiveness”, which offered strategies for communication in
relationships of all types. Their hope
was to get 25-30 people to sign up. Since field employees also wanted to attend,
they offered the class simultaneously via video-conferencing. As the course began, they mentioned they had
to nix the video-conferencing and live-stream the course because to their
surprise over 500 employees had
signed up! Ten minutes into the class
they said the live stream was crashing because 1000 people were trying to join
the live-stream! My sense is this overwhelming need to have effective one-on-one
communication skills is representative of society at large. I
Good communication certainly is vital within a marriage and
learning how to communicate effectively is never-ending! While courses and
books on communication offer helpful tools for improving communication with
your spouse, learning to use those tools is the difficult part. Not being the expert, I can only offer some
brief insights.
- Ground all conversations in love.
- Never allow daggers to fly from your tongue, as wounds may heal but scars remain.
- Often it’s what you didn’t say that can cause a rift in the relationship.
- Never start the sentence with “you”, instead use the word “I”
- When your communications are a total miss, rest in the Lord and ask Him to help you find the missing link.
Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun set on your
anger, and do not leave room for the devil.
Ephesians 4:26-27
And when you are frustrated beyond belief….
Consider it all joy, [ ] when you encounter various trials, for
you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. And let
perseverance be perfect, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in
nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives to all
generously and ungrudgingly, and he will be given it. James 1:2-5
Lord, only through
you, can we stay in the conversation. Only through you, can we stay grounded in
love. Only through you can we see our contribution to the difficulties we are
experiencing. Only through you can we
see how our words and tone lack kindness. Only you can bridge the long gaps of
silence. Only you can help us find joy
in the cross. Gift us with your
presence, by being our unbreakable bond.
Hear our prayers, no matter how weak, and strengthen our marriage.
He must increase; I must decrease. John 3:30
Peace, Joy, and Love,
Janet
Excellence always begins in Him. Prayer is the perfect form of communication! Pass
it on!
