Communication and Councils

This week has been very eye opening for me. I was texting a friend and I thought that the conversation was going well but then I never heard back from them. Then in class on Tuesday we talked about communication. I realized that the text I had sent sounded one way in my head but the complete opposite in my friends head. This actually happens more often than people think. It is really hard to have a perfect understanding of how another person is thinking or feeling. Body language, words and tone make up most of human communication. What someone says, how they say it and what they do when they say it are always of communicating. Someone could say “I love you” but because there back is turned away from you and the tone is harsh, it has a completely different meaning then just the words alone. I realized that more often than not people think differently than I do. I think about things in one way and somebody sees it in the opposite way. I think that God made us this why so life wouldn’t be boring. If everyone thought the same, life would just be annoyingly lame. So I realized that I needed to be clearer in my communication with others. Especially over texts, because they don’t have the tone or see the body language.

Another thing that I found so interesting was how to hold a family council. This is a really cool thing. As a class we looked at how the leaders of our church hold a council and talked about how beneficial it is to hold family councils in the same way. They start of every council with expressing love and appreciation to each other. To me, this opens the hearts of all members to be loving and kind even if they don’t agree on something. I feel like if one started a family council this way there would be less likelihood of yelling or screaming. Next they open with prayer. God knows more than we do. Inviting Him to help you make decisions will bring clarity and most likely will speed things up. Then they take turns speaking. They speak kindly and one by one express their opinion. They don’t talk over each other. In a family this is important. No member is less important than another. They are a family and the decision will affect everyone. As they use the spirit of the Lord they come to a consensus. A consensus is more than just a compromise. A consensus means that each member came to the same conclusion as to what needs to be done. They do not simply just give and take to make sure each member gets part of what they want. It is a conclusion that all are pleased with, including God. Then they close with prayer and have refreshment of some sort. This is important because when you share a meal with someone, you show that you care and love them. It ends the council with a friendly, happy atmosphere with no hard feelings toward anyone. I love the idea of being able to have effective council meetings. When of the key things in order to obtain a wonderful consensus is to make sure that you are not just hoping for what you want but truly are wanting to do the Lord’s will. Two people can agree quicker and without hard feelings when the Lord’s will is being done and not the will of one person or the other, or a combination of both. Things are better when we involve the Lord. This takes practice and I am no expert but I have set this as a goal for myself.