Much more direct than I use to be

I am much more direct than I used to be. I don't know if it has come with age, marriage, subjecting temperament weaknesses to the control of the Holy Spirit, or something else, but I am less inclined to let things happen and more inclined to let people know exactly what I am feeling. The other night the person we are working with to continue to get our finances in order was giving me some direction that I was not inclined to take. Rather than saying, "I'll think about it and get back to you" or, even worse, "I'll do that" I flat out said, "I don't want to do that, I want to do this". It even took my wife back a bit and she was happy that I handled it that way rather than any other. I was too, actually, and we hammered out a plan that I am very happy with rather than one that would, at best, be mediocre.

That is something I need to do more and more. I need to emphatically say yes when I agree and no when I need to. It is only fair to the person that I am interacting with, the people I am in charge of, and to myself. It makes me feel good as well knowing that I can not only make decisions but make unpopular ones that fly in the face of the stated desires of others. Of course I strive for the win-win situation as often as I can because I think that type of outcome is, usually, the one the one that God desires. But if the wise path causes someone to lose than so be it. They lose.

The wise way is too important to ignore. It stings too much when I brush it aside. And it subjects even the ones I love to injury as well. That's much too high of a price.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

tightvnc keyboard mapping problem in Ubuntu 9.04

Image
I have been, off and on, having an issue with the keys on my keyboard mapping to the correct values when using the tightvnc client when paired with the vncserver vino in Ubuntu 9.04. I am not exactly sure what keyboard layout the client and server was expecting, but it seemed like every time I restarted the OS the keyboard mapping problem would come back and I would be at square one again. Well, I think I have found the workaround I was looking for . Hopefully this will help anyone else that is having this issue.
Read more

The manifestation of the "I" and the gift of self - Part 1

I am continuing my journey through Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body and I had never realized how body-focused the 2nd and 3rd chapters of Genesis truly are.  But then it all makes so much more sense when it was brought to my attention that the body we have been given in a manifestation of me, or to put it another way, the "I". And it goes beyond that still. Not only does it reveal me, but my body also reveals, in no small measure, the image of God. That is not to say that God is made of flesh like me as is depicted in so many Renaissance paintings. The old man in the sky is nothing like the God as revealed in the Bible. However, the love that God is, the holiness that he is, the justice he is, the righteousness that he is...all of it is shown to the world through my body. In a very real way, my body allows for others, and for me, to participate in the mystery (the hiddenness) of the image of God. That is by design; from the beginning.  If God is revealed in nature...
Read more

Let me learn what I need to learn

In the “I don’t know what God is trying to produce in me…” portion of the blog: I work across (not with) an incredibly loud person. We are in cubes and he refuses to use a handset when he is in a conference call…or headphones. Everything is done via speaker phone. Maybe his handset is broken? I don’t know and am too timid (read “interested in keeping the peace”) to ask him. Of course he shouts into his speaker phone as well when he talks. Now he even refuses to use a keyboard. He has a speech recognition program that allows him to speak to the computer rather than type. Good for him! Now we can all hear “Comma…open parenthesis…close parenthesis…tab…tab...tab…” Was it my sin or my parents sin that relegated me to this placement in the office. We all know the answer to that but man…it sure feels like I am getting punished for something.
Read more