The Key Of Communication II

‘But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden- except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, your are sure to die’  Gen.2:16-17

My mum is a teacher and she used to tell us that the teacher has not taught if the student has not understood. As a leader you have not communicated if the person you are talking to has not understood. When giving my colleagues an instruction, a lot of the time I watch them. When I think they do not understand what I am saying, I ask them to repeat it to me. Sometimes they tell me very strange things. With my colleagues that are men, I do not have issues communicating. I just tell them what to do and they understand. With the ladies however it’s a different story, sometimes I have to repeat the instruction several times for communication purposes. Not because something is wrong with them but because we are different.

The second mistake Adam made was that he allowed Eve’s words instead of God’s words to determine the direction. God said, “don’t eat”. Eve said, “eat”. Communication is not just about knowing when to talk, it is also knowing when to be quiet. Some people just know how to talk but they do not know how to keep quiet. The fact that you can talk a lot does not mean you are communicating at all. Talking and communicating are two totally different things. The secret of a happy marriage, “…whenever you’re wrong, admit it; whenever you’re right, shut up” -Ogden Nash. Yet people keep doing the opposite. They want to argue when they are wrong and put it in the face of their spouses when they are right. Just keep quiet! Your spouse already knows he/she has made a mistake when he/she takes the wrong turn.

God spent six days making the garden but it was all about the garden. God made the firmament, the vegetation and then put man in it. But because man messed up his relationship with God, he lost everything. When your relationship with God is messed up you will inevitably lose everything. But I am praying today that your relationship with God will be totally restored so that your garden will not be assigned to another.

Prayer: Father, build me up in receiving communication and in sending out communication so that I may preserve my relationship with You, in Jesus Name.