Cloaked in praises, as long as it’s short.
And my blood sugar level is relatively high,
And given with smile and a wink of the eye.
Provided I’m not moody, grumpy or tired,
And only say words that will leave me inspired.
Dance, sidestep and skirt, the important issues
Lest you leave me daubing my eyes with tissues,
In a moment of my choosing, where and when I like,
With all restraint, lest my ego you strike.
And before you finish and walk out the door,
Am I loving me, more than I did before?
Lessen the blow; keep it light and airy,
Or tonight friends will read your obituary.
Okay, I know it's corny but if pretty near sums up my ability to accept criticism. We are emotional beings and we are hurt easily, and without care, a child may be brought to tears with a look. We resist advice and love our own way.
Jesus said "we have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented." The Bible uses all manner and methods to reach our hard hearts, parable, poem, stories of history, urging, threatening, beseeching, maxims, and what ever method to be all things to all men that they may repent. God could have made one small book with His commands, but he chose to use all methods to reach us.
It is a strange and difficult thing to reach humans, we are a stiff necked creature, to understate it.
Photo by Adam Wesolowski
4 comments:
Very enjoyable post.
I find a pattern in some of your posts where you tend to make global statements (or perhaps assume) that "we" are all alike.
For example: You say, "We are emotional beings and we are hurt easily, and without care, a child may be brought to tears with a look. We resist advice and love our own way."
I agree that "we" are all emotional beings. But, "we" are not all hurt easily and "we" do not all resist advice and love our own way.
I don't know how important that is, but I just felt like I should point it out. "We" are all very different. Some of us like criticism and rebuke (perhaps even welcome it) because we have learned that we grow from it.
I was an athlete and found that if my coach didn't tell me what I was doing wrong, I would never improve. He didn't stand there during practice and praise me. He was there to point out every single error I made and not in a "flowery way".
For what it's worth.
Hi Anon,
Good observations, I do tend to paint all with one brush, and I agree with you that the emotional make-up varies greatly from person to person. Certainly with the children and grandchildren they vary greatly in what is needed to correct. I can speak to one in a soft tone and get compliance, but when I was a boy if you weren't applying a switch to my legs I was oblvious.
God bless,
Fred
Hi Fred :)
Very educative post and one that every one should read again and again because sometimes or the other we will be facing the difficult task of criticising some one.
Many thanks for sharing.
Best wishes :)
I felt the post was a very honest one and I thought it witty.
I am not one that loves criticism or rebuke...but I am willing to learn from it if it has value because I would rather do it right than wrong.
I do get my feelings hurt easily, but am not weakened by my emotions to stop moving forward. I press forward in spite of them.
I believe there is a time for rough advise like when my son is driving and I have to yell "watch out for that pedestrian!"
If I and a friend are just having a conversation and we are offering up different opinions....that's fine.
But if I am going to give out advice...it better be from God and not from my own soul. I don't want to waste my time or someone elses time with a waste of words and two cents worth of opinion.
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