I’m fast on the keyboard—quicker speeds than some, slower than others. But one thing I note, no matter how quickly those fingers fly, I still cannot type as quickly as I think. Maybe this is the problem with writing these days. Our tools and vocabulary have changed from the “pause” when we would turn to the dictionary, encyclopedias, and other such volumes of information.
Today, it’s almost as if we communicate without thinking it through.
Maybe that’s when writing means something. Parchment was expensive, so you used it judiciously. Where do you think ink comes from? If the local convenience store has none, can you make your own? Sure, but it may not last very long. Whoa! How many geese do you need to keep a quill at hand? Quills require sharpening. Do you have your “pen knife?”
Here’s a thought. Think it through before saying what we think we want to say. That’s what came to my mind yesterday…so I said it! While in a parking lot…after an emergency run to a tool store for a home project.
Where did it come from? Why did I feel the need to share? The times they be weird! People blurt out what’s on their minds. From this unloading of the mind, we are stressed. By what? The cacophony of useless noise threatens the quiet where most of our peace lies.
Maybe what’s better is to think it through. How? By using an old-fashioned pencil, eraser, and paper. Why? I’m a fast reader, and I read in silence, golden silence. Transfer it to your blog, and you’ve solved your itch to speak off the cuff. Write it, and it’s hoped you’ll read it and update your position after you’ve thought it through.
How do we think things through to our conclusion? By putting the words into “being” and then reading them and seeing if they make sense.
“When I get ready to talk to people,
I spend two-thirds of the time thinking what they want to hear
and one-third thinking about what I want to say.”
~Abraham Lincoln
Writing Is Important
When confronted by some who wanted to know which side of the law Jesus was on, he stooped and wrote in the sand. See? Write it before you say anything. Jesus finally spoke, “He who is without sin, cast the first stone.” (John 8:7)
Peter writes a simple phrase that spoke to my mind this morning.
For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness… (a long laundry list of results…)
2 Peter 2:18 NKJV
The words we think can harm us, but once they are spoken and put into the ether, or even written down, they are now in the public ionosphere. They never go away. You cannot undo their harm.
I wish we would think this through better. Every social post is a history student’s archaeological dig sometime in the future. All your words will be stored up and mined like gold. The Future will write horror stories about these times. Future generations will say, “You go girl!” or “My, oh my. I’m lucky I didn’t live back then.”
Writing From An Emotional Point
Through my years of sharing, I’ve learned it’s best to go slowly and approach the subject with a great attitude. Yes. Even today I’m still learning this truth. Most of my words are not off the cuff, rather, they’ve been dealt with for days in draft mode!
We react from our emotions and communicate without thinking. Perhaps we should remove the emotions, think it through before sharing, and have a good attitude about the process.
“The longer I live,
the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.
Attitude, to me, is more important than facts.
It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes,
than what other people think or say or do.
It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill.
It will make or break a company…a church….a home.
The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day
regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.
We cannot change our past…
We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way.
We cannot change the inevitable.
The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude…
I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.
And so it is with you…we are in charge of our attitudes.”
― Charles Swindoll