I missed you before you headed into your weekend! But here are three things that I’ve been reading and thinking about this week. Hope they are as helpful to you as they have been to me. Have a great weekend!

#1

The speech of God is not the language of explanation. It is the language of promise.

And God Spoke to Abraham by Fleming Rutledge

Stop looking for the “why”. God rarely provides it. Start looking for the “what now”. You’ll most often find it hiding in plain sight in how God wants to shape your character to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow.

#2

When language is personal, which it is at its best, it reveals; and revelation is always formative – we don’t know more, we become more. Our best users of language, poets and lovers and children and saints, use words to make – make intimacies, make character, make beauty, make goodness, make truth

Eat This Book by Eugene H. Peterson

This Peterson quotes adds to the Rutledge one above. Specific. Accurate. Personal. These are keys to communicating with clarity. I’ve been reminded from my colleagues on staff this week that clarity is kindness. Saying what you mean allows others the opportunity to process well and act according to their convictions. What have I been unwilling to say, or unwilling to say with clarity, that needs to be said? to my family, co-workers, friends, etc, etc. This may be a great exercise for us all to take on for the upcoming week?

#3

What people are afraid of isn’t failure. It’s blame. Criticism.

Tribes by Seth Godin

As someone whose vocation is ripe for criticism, this is a good word for the week. What am I refusing to do or say because I fear criticism?