Quick to Read, Slow to Blog

Our youth class has been looking at James where it says to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger. I have (off and on) been consciously working on the idea of being slow to speak. My natural tendency is to be quick to speak. There are a number of reasons for this.

>Arrogance that what I have to say is important for others to hear.
>Desire to be the center of attention, to have people think I am witty.
>Impatience with people as they share their thoughts
>etc.

(Boy, I sound like a real jerk.)

So anyway, I am trying to be aware of the need to listen to others and reserve my own input. I am not always successful by any means, but I'm working on it.

It occurred to me today that our current social media are probably training people in just the opposite direction. The immediacy of tweeting and mobile facebooking condition us to spit out whatever comes to mind, as quickly as it does come to mind, with little time for reflection, analysis, or testing. Blogging is probably a little better, because it is (or at least can be) a longer, more crafted piece of expression.

I'm not saying that any of this is bad, or wrong, or that you shouldn't do it, or even that I shouldn't do it. I'm just trying to see how my own tendencies function and why, and how they need to be reshaped to conform to the wisdom in God's word. I've been inspired by my wife to return to blogging, but I want to be slow about it. :)

Blogged with the Flock Browser