1 Samuel 25:36
\u201cNow Abigail went to Nabal, and there he was, holding a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal\u2019s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk; therefore she told him nothing, little or much, until morning light.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In part (1) of this topic, \u201cHow to get people to listen,\u201d we showed that people don\u2019t just listen to anyone but listen to people they respect. We connected respect and people\u2019s willingness to listen to what we say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In part (2), we look at another key to helping people listen to us. We are looking at the issue of TIMING. When we speak is just as important as what we say. Timing makes a world of difference whether people listen to us or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking truth is good, but speaking truth in the right way and at the right time is best. Let\u2019s go beyond what is good to what is excellent. Let\u2019s not settle for only speaking what we believe is correct. Let\u2019s help people listen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Abigail wanted her husband to know what she had done and how she had prevented death from coming to his entire household. But when she saw him drunk, she decided it was not the right time. She decided to tell him nothing \u201cuntil morning light.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No matter how much pressure you feel to say something, and no matter how urgent you think your message is, look for the right time to say it. The purpose of communication is not just information sharing. It\u2019s creating understanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some people feel they must speak their mind always, irrespective of timing, and then they are surprised they are often misunderstood, their ideas or their persons are rejected, or they always enter into conflict with others. Timing matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If Abigail had spoken to Nabal that night while he was drunk, he might have become violent towards her for making those decisions without his permission. Or, in his drunken state, he may not have understood the weight of what had happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As pilgrims, we need the virtue of self-control to know when to speak. We need heavenly wisdom to know how to speak. Even if people don\u2019t accept our ideas, let\u2019s present them at such a time as they can at least listen to it. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
1 Samuel 25:36\u201cNow Abigail went to Nabal, and there he was, holding a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal\u2019s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk; therefore she told him nothing, little or much, until morning light.\u201d In part (1) of this topic, \u201cHow to get […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,13],"tags":[67],"class_list":["post-7771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-reflections-from-1st-samuel","tag-reflections-from-1st-samuel"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/1-Samuel-Cover-1.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7771"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7772,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7771\/revisions\/7772"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}