Are you a good listener or a committed speaker? Take a few moments to think back to the last three proper meaty conversations you had with friends or family. If someone had been holding down a timer every time you spoke and releasing it every time you listened, which would be the bigger number? Take a moment to imagine if the people you have last spoken to were asked that same question. How might [...]
i had a catchup lunch with my good friend Linda Martindale yesterday. i texted her this morning to let her know it had been good for my soul. It was great catching up and it was really cool to show her bits of the book that i'm writing and get some input and be able to send some to her for perusal; it was amazing to meet her niece Rebecca Stead in person [Twitterer and [...]
We caught a glimpse of this in the #IAmStellenbosch campaign where a group of well-meaning students drew up some posters highlighting something about them that made them unique or different to the stereotype that their skin colour or background might typically suggest. It received a huge backlash from the media and people of all races across the country for a number of reasons. Possibly the biggest one was that once again we saw a race problem [...]
This is a tough one for me. i feel like i can probably get over whatever other friend-losing behaviours i share after this one, but this one just feels so incredible rude, that i would struggle. Immediate downgrade to acquaintance or person-i-walk-away-from-quickly-when-i-see-you-heading-my-way feels fair. Does that seem too harsh? Maybe you've never known someone who does it. i am thinking of one person in particular. Really nice person. Quality. And so a number of years [...]
*If I had a mic and all of SA was listening what would I say for 2015. My hope, my dream for this beautiful nation is that people would step out of their comfort zones amd embrace other people. I know this is not easy. My dream is that young people would embrace older people, straight people would embrace gay and transgendered people, people of different racial hues would also embrace each other and share [...]
another week, another 'Coffee with Jesus' cartoon strip holding a mirror up towards us, this time in the area of prayer... Psalm 46.10 reads, 'Be still and know that I am God.' quite often most of us forget the 'be still' part as illustrated really well here: of course too often we also get the 'and know that I am God' part pretty wrong as well, but that's another post...
Note, this is remarkably different from "be incontinent" so try not to get confused. [in fact to be honest one of the definitions listed was "Not restrained; uncontrolled" and i am going to be speaking to exactly the opposite of that...] At the point of writing this, my wife aka the beautiful Val, is currently in Americaland while i am still in South Africa [that is about to change in 5 days time though, can't [...]
To take an example: Brett, let’s be honest: your youtube videos suck. Big time. And I don’t even see the purpose in it. i am continuing with my response to the 'a nonny miss?' email i received, because i feel there are a bunch of things to be learned from it, which relate far beyond this simple email. the second part i want to look at is specifically that line 'And I don’t even see [...]
Proverbs 18 vs 13 says, 'To answer before listening — that is folly and shame.' Whoops, my hand is up. Is anyone else's hand up? This is not a great start. One way in which you can definitively show Love to someone is by listening without interrupting them. And i do confess that i do this way too much. Well the opposite of this, the interrupting part. Maybe i get half points for listening AND [...]
i saw this as a typical Facebook post, like, share piece and so can not claim that it is original, but also do not know what the original source is, so please be gentle plagurism police... and while i am not a huge fan of "the 7 keys to financial success" or "118 ways to a better waistline", this list feels like a good thing to give consideration to not as THE ONLY 10 WAYS [...]
