Is it just my imagination or is there an epidemic of verbal abuse today? At church and in the community I so often run into people who yak-yak-yak about themselves with no respite in sight. I'm almost afraid to ask them for a response in SS class for fear they'll never quit their babbling, often stories they've told a zillion times previously. Both singles and marrieds seem to suffer from this disease. Any suggestions on how to extricate oneself from their abusive tongues?
I know what you mean. Many people these days are so stressed out and anxious that they don't even think about how what they say will affect others. And it even affects us in churches. I don't think it's going to end any time soon as things will only get worse until Jesus comes.
So....how do we stop ourselves from doing the same? Perhaps by putting ourselves in other people's shoes? But, I suspect the only way we can keep from doing this is by letting Jesus control our lives. That is the only way for us to change.
Yes, as in all situations, Jesus is the answer. When I'm tempted to talk about myself I remind myself that "It's not all about me." But sometimes I am ready to tear my ears off to avoid certain people.
HEY SURVEYOR
do you teach and adult s.s. class?????
I have heard that even the dull person might have
something good to say. I TEACH a adult s.s. class
once a month. some times it is hard to get people to
talk in class. but some times if some people want
to ramble on i just politly say we have to move on
the the next days lesson. But I still give them some
time to talk.
BUT we need to as k JESUS to help us with these
people so we can over come our faults.
dgrimm60
Sometimes these people who babble on and on need some guidelines set and then enforced. I have noticed that some people are very opinionated. They seem to think that they are the only ones who can think and are very vocal about it. If the topic is something that isn't set in stone or a Bible doctrine, we all need to give a little.
For some time I have been a member of another forum and I was really shocked at first by some people who are so anti this or anti that. They feel the church is doing this or that wrong and that it needs changing. To me that it what Ellen White warns about. That kind of negativity is what will keep us out of Heaven. We become so negative that we take ourselves right out of the church and don't have anything to do with any church. Now that is so sad!
I wish all the people who have deserted the Adventist church (walked out the back door, as the pundits say) had stayed around and tried to change things. Think what a finer and better people we would be.
One of my passions at the moment is for every Sabbath School class to have a class leader. This person's responsibility is to create a loving and caring class where members learn to love and care for fellow members just as Jesus loves and cares for us. What a change this would bring to our church family! We'd forget about fighting and tearing one another apart. Critisizm would become obsolete and we'd love one another as Jesus does. This would happen in the first 15-20 minutes of the Sabbath School class. Often this is what is missing in Sabbath School. I also suspect that many people who have left would return and many more would join.
Now, that's evangelism!
HEY ALL
WELL we all can do our part about being friendly and
to show love to members and visitors
that is what we can do
dgrimm60
We carried out a church consult last weekend and that church's maximum factor in the Natural Church Development questionnaire was Loving Relationships. Now, that's the kind of church to belong to, isn't it, surveyor?! It must be nice to belong to a church where people allow others to be themselves without a lot of fighting and putdowns.
HEY ALL
THAT would be a nice church to belong to because
its members will be letting JESUS in to their lifes.
dgrimm60
It would be a nice church to belong to. They are a nice group and are so eager to share Jesus with those in their community.
I have found that the majority of the people at church have good intentions and are there to love, learn and share Jesus. However, just in any other group of people, there are those who will ‘make waves’ so-to-speak. If we allow them to be the center of our focus we are taking our eyes from the Cross.
I like the way that Doug handles it in his class: Allow them a little time and politely move-on.