Say What?

“Use your heads as you live and work among outsiders. Don’t miss a trick. Make the most of every opportunity. Be gracious in your speech. The goal is to bring out the best in others in a conversation, not put them down, and not cut them out.”  (Colossians 4:5-6, The Message)

Have you ever noticed people who have a lot to say but cannot stop long enough to listen? The person who talks endlessly is a distraction. They dominate your time and impose every imaginable opinion, complete with mentally exhausting details and mindless chatter about selfish ordeals, including past and present personal issues.
 
For you, it’s a challenge to process all of that information (even if you wanted to), but for that person, they are so into themselves they have no clue their mire of words is a conversation trap for others. Avoid those people.
 
Godly conversation should ebb and flow with shared ideas in an interaction that enriches everyone involved and gives them something they didn’t have before the exchange. Now THAT is inspiring! Interest in others—in their lives and needs—is a sensitivity every believer should cultivate, a discipline to hear what is said—to really hear it—and, having heard, be ready to offer a Godly, Word-based perspective.
 
As Christians we practice the skill that edifies others with words. We share our Lord’s call to minister words seasoned with salt; and like the preservative qualities in salt, our words preserve and minister life, elevate rather than reduce: “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.”
 
Amen.

Colossians 4:5-6, The Message | Colossians 4:6, NKJV