If you profess Christianity, please be careful in your discussions about controversial issues today. Please don’t be arrogant. You’re never going to change someone’s mind when you’re words are laced with arrogance or contempt.
What’s your goal?
You don’t have to try and get someone to agree with your point, but you can introduce doubt in their thinking by respectfully questioning the things they say that you don’t agree with.
If your goal is just to be right, you’re missing an opportunity. People are watching and listening.
When we profess faith in Christ, we are called to submit our minds to Him so that they would be transformed. Our words should be seasoned with salt.
Please pray before you speak and ask the Holy Spirit to speak through you instead.
If you publish something on the internet about your belief or conviction or opinion or whatever word you want to use, please take a time-out between the moment when you think you’re finished typing and the moment you hit publish or post. I can’t tell you how many words haven’t made the cut when I take that time out. I’ve written thousands of words that never saw the light of the internet because the Holy Spirit showed me they weren’t edifying.
If my goal is to be right or justifiably indignant, I try to be satisfied with giving me a piece of my mind. I pray that more often than not, the words I write and speak introduce doubt in a closed and made-up mind, plant seeds of change and facilitate an exploration – and maybe a shift – in thought.
Can dialog about the issues that divide us be pointless? Sometimes. Sometimes not. Sometimes it seems pointless but the questions we’ve asked and the seasoned words we’ve spoken linger like a stone in someone’s shoe. You may never see the result.
Please seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit in your conversations and trust God to take your words and your obedience and make it good, Even if you never get to see the good.
You have influence. Please use it intentionally. With your greatest goal being to love God and love others.
I have a fairly strict rule about politics: I don’t discuss them unless I KNOW you are on the same side of the fence as me. I have friends all over the spectrum and no relationship is worth losing over it. Do I get tied up in knots when someone I know posts something inflammatory about something I believe strongly in? You betcha! And the number of times I’ve wanted to say something and then…just don’t. It’s just not worth it. I’m not going to change their mind and they aren’t going to change mine. In the end, I’m supposed to preach Christ, not change opinions or even lifestyles. Not my job, and I’m very grateful for that.