Can you remember some embarrassing communication fails or you live alone in a cave. If not, you are a very, very careful person.
I am a professional communicator in both broadcast and in narrowcast. I speak often to large groups and I write a blog that can be read by thousands. (HA! That is a stretch.) This means that I have a lot more opportunities to offend and misspeak than most.
I was teaching in Taiwan about the importance of healing shame. Guilt is a message from the heart and mind that says, "You broke one of God's commandments so you deserve to be punished". The answer to guilt is the forgiveness of God.
However, shame is totally different but feels similar. It is a message that you are imperfect and only perfect people can be in the family of God and humans. Thus, shame can be a mixture of a guilty conscience together with shame based feelings of self-revulsion and total rejection. The answer is biblical adoption.
When I said the term adoption, I immediately saw a negative reaction on the faces of the 50 Pastors at the seminar. I paused, and asked through my interpreter, "I can see that I made a mistake in what I said. What did I do wrong?"
This was a big fail on my part. As a result, we had a thirty minute discussion about what shame means in the Chinese language.
I had taught Chinese leaders for over a decade but missed some very important cues, and it blocked my ability to communicate well. Thank God those Pastors helped me change.
I messed up and I had to face my fail and clean it up. Have you ever embarrassed yourself like that?
What did you do?
Famous misquotes from the Bible:
“’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you . . .’” Jer 29:11.
It was written to people in captivity.It told them to work hard while there not to take them out of bondage immediately.
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