“What helps the Medicine go down…?”
I am a mom and as a mom I am continually challenged with the need to communicate clearly. First, I have to get past the typical and prevalent counsel of the world outside Scriptural truth, finding the path that will lead my girls and grandchildren to understand the only true and absolute values in life that will free them to know themselves, their children and the ultimate plan and purpose God has for them. This is often over-shadowed by worldly pressures and ideologies.
The challenge of communicating in a foreign language with my neighbor and friend, Mikaela
We all want to be heard. We want our little ones to listen to us. After all, our job is to make them successful! Fortunately, our children are a face-to-face venture. We are looking into cherub faces and reading what prompted their attitude or wrong response.
Communication is a forever challenge. There are so many “impersonal” ways to dialogue in this day and age. A response of more than three words with an emoji of some sort is usually all that is required. There is no face-to-face, no reading of their expression, no sensing their heart and understanding the attitude that is pre-empting their response. Judgments are made based on guessing the heart of the person responding.
Was I misunderstood? Was I heard?
Was I clear and kind in my communication?
With technology as it is, one never knows for certain what is being communicated or how it is being received. You presume the high road and trust the person on the other end of the e-mail, text, tweet, FB, etc. is open to doing the same. We all need help and correction and the people who love us enough to tell us where and how we would be more successful if we would “grow up” in an area of our life are to be commended, specifically if the help comes with a right motive and attitude.
It’s more difficult to receive a messenger who is angry; however, it is important to listen, nonetheless. We don’t choose the messenger God sends! It doesn’t “make the medicine go down” easier, but if received, the benefit and blessing is the same.
As a wife, it certainly goes a long way in helping the “medicine go down” when my husband takes the time to express his understanding my response toward him, rather than just taking the issue on. Men are programmed conquerors and the temptation is usually…just let me solve the problem, without attention to validating the personal need we have to be heard.
“Be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.” James 1:19
Every challenge we face today will either lead us
into the victory of gratefulness
or the trap of bitterness.
How are you communicating these days?
~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America. Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California. My passion is discipling and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights.
