Slow but Quick
God is teaching me some simple but valuable lessons in my Christian walk. Communication is an area that He is constantly helping me to grow in; communication with those around me and with Him. I was recently reminded of two little gems I’ve learned along the way.
- Be slow to respond
My communication is rather raw as you might have observed from my blogs. I sometimes tend to express my emotions and current thoughts without much filtering. Some may call it wearing my heart on my sleeve (gross and kinda funny if literal). I don’t spend much time to process what the other person said to me and quickly shoot back with a not-so-refined response.
I praise God for people in my life who have been patient with me in this aspect and who have been great examples for me to look up to. I learn so much from watching how these individuals interact with others and the thoughtful words that they slip into the conversations as they listen and reply. It is an art that I want to master as I mature in Christ. Brother James sums it up beautifully below.
“Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.” James 1:19 NLT
2. Be quick to respond
You may think that this point contradicts the previous but hear me out. In my younger days, I took my sweet time responding to messages and quite often ignored calls on my phone reasoning that I would get back to them soon. Then I was caught up with stuff and maybe procrastination kicked in as well so by the time I contacted them back, I had kept someone really anxious or my reply to them had become irrelevant.
I have since repented and realise that I need to be accountable (and contactable). There are people that get in touch with me for various reasons but I have learned to get back in touch with them as soon as possible. It might not be possible to follow the previous guideline to respond with a thoroughly thoughtful reply and do it in a quick manner. That’s totally fine. Just send a text to say that “I am busy but I will get back to you ASAP”. That is usually a good first step. And follow that up by actually getting back to them ASAP with a thoughtful response. For this point, I do not have a Bible text to back it up but it seems to be affective with believers and non-believers, loved ones or hated ones alike. The following meme has a point.
A short blog this week but I pray that it blessed you in some way. God bless!
