Thoughts Along The Journey

A large portion of our work as cross cultural workers and leaders consists in engaging people in conversation.  As I thought through my day today, I easily had over five significant conversations.

The question I am asking myself in light of all those conversations is: did I have any good conversations today?

When I say ‘good’, I’m asking myself if any of those ‘significant’ conversations built up another, brought hope back to someone, caused us as a ‘conversation’ group to move a project further along, allowed another ‘into’ my life  to hear my heart, or influenced a young believer in their walk with Christ.  That’s what I, we, should aspire to when ‘talking’ or conversing with others.

If we were honest, a number of our conversations are not ‘good’; not ‘good’ in the sense that there is no purpose or fruit from the time spent talking together. Sure, there are  times when our conversations are moments of jovial fun and laughter.  However, if the majority of our conversations consist of nothing more than lighthearted humor, we should probably ask more regularly: did I have any good conversations today?

Here are a few ideas to assess ourselves when we have a conversation in the next few days. Perhaps these might help us better see the import, the ‘good’ of our conversations:

• If you were to summarize the conversation you just had in one sentence, what would you say?
• How many questions did you ask, and how many questions did you answer?
• If you were the other person in the conversation, how would you have felt when the conversation was over?

“… but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” 

Filed under: Assessment, Communication, Development |