Personal Development on Talking

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A Gripping Lecture

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Charles Babbage (1792-1871) was a British mathematician and inventor known for his enjoyment of talking. At one particular dinner, Thomas Carlyle, the Scottish polymath was going on and on about the v...

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Author

Ernest Hemingway

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When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.

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The Wordy Pianist

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

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Scripture

Proverbs 10:19, Ecclesiastes 5:2, Isaiah 26:3 , James 1:19, Matthew 6:27, Psalm 141:3, James 3:

The renowned pianist Arthur Rubinstein (1887–1982), often hailed as one of the greatest musicians of all time, loved to share this humorous story about himself. Known for his gift of conversation—he s...

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Author

Adam S. McHugh

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Introverts move a little slower, speak a little less, and rest a little more.

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The Conversational Topper

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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Scripture

James 1:9, Philippians 2:3-4, Proverbs 3:18, Romans 12:15, James 1:19

Have you ever been guilty of being a “conversational topper”? The topper is someone who, when another confides a challenge or shares an exciting event, immediately connects that event to their own li...

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All the Knowledge in the World

Author

Clifton Fadiman

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Scripture

James 1:19, Matthew 7:3-5, Romans 12:3

At a dinner party, [The Scottish playwright George Bernard] Shaw sat next to a young man who proved to be a bore of historic proportions. After suffering through a seemingly interminable monologue, Sh...

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Confrontation Defined

Author

Henry Cloud & John Townsend

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Scripture

Genesis 32:22-32, Exodus 5:1-21, 2 Samuel 12:1-14, Matthew 18:15-17, John 21:15-19, Psalm 141:5

The Latin term for confrontation means “to turn your face toward, to look at frontally.” It merely indicates that you are turning toward the relationship and the person. You are face-to-face, so to sp...

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Words of Life, Words of Death: You Choose

Author

John Piper & Justin Taylor

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Scripture

Proverbs 18:21, Genesis 3:1-6 , Numbers 13:30–14:4, James 3:5-10 , Matthew 12:36-37 , Psalm 141:3

The book of Proverbs is, in ways, a treatise on talk. I would summarize it this way: words give life; words bring death—you choose . What does this mean? It means you have never spoken a neutral ...

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Author

Fran Lebowitz

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Waiting

The opposite of talking isn’t listening. The opposite of talking is waiting.

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Author

Harvey Fierstein

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How time flies when you do all the talking!

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Author

A. A. Milne

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Listening

If the person you are talking to doesn't appear to be listening, be patient. It may simply be that he has a small piece of fluff in his ear.

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Are you Talking to Me?

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

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Scripture

James 1:19, Luke 24:13-25, 1 Corinthians 14:9, Matthew 13:10-17

"The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place .” George Bernard Shaw Three-year-old Matthew was chewing on an apple when he asked, “Daddy, why is ...

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Distracted During Prayer

Author

Craig Groeschel

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In the middle of a prayer, whether praying silently or aloud, my mind would bounce from one thing to the next. Dear God in heaven, I pray that you heal my friend who has cancer. Work in her life now i...

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The Biggest Influence on Your Life

Author

Paul David Tripp

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I find myself saying it over and over again. When I do, people often laugh, but I’m really quite serious. No one is more influential in your life than you are because no one talks to you more than you...

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The Monk and the Cup of Tea

Author

Ruth Haley Barton

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The story is told of a learned professor who went to visit an old monk who was famous for his wisdom. The monk graciously welcomed him into his temple and offered him a seat on a cushion. No sooner ha...

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Author

Alan Fadling

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The practices of solitude, silence and listening to God started to slow me down and enabled me to focus my attention more and more on coming to Jesus and following him rather than talking about Jesus ...

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The Great Re-Wiring of Gen Z

Author

Jonathan Haidt

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Gen Z became the first generation in history to go through puberty with a portal in their pockets that called them away from the people nearby and into an alternative universe that was exciting, addic...

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Throwing Away Valuable Resources

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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Scripture

Psalm 42:, Philippians 3:13-14, 2 Corinthians 5:17, 2 Corinthians 11:24-30

In many parts of the country, leaf clean-up is an annual chore. They fall from the trees, blanket our lawns, and we often bag them up and toss them out (or burn them). There’s a lesson in this… In my...

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The Greatest Hitter in the World

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

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Scripture

Genesis 50:20, Exodus 4:10–12, 1 Samuel 17:, Matthew 18:1–4 , Romans 5:3–5, Psalm 139:14

A young boy was heard talking to himself as he wandered through his backyard, sporting a full baseball uniform, jersey and cap included, as well as a ball and bat. "I'm the best hitter in the...

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Desire is part of what it means to be a child

Author

Curt Thompson

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Scripture

Genesis 2:18-25, Exodus 16:2-12 , Proverbs 3:11-12, Psalm 1:4, Matthew 18:1-4, Luke 15:11-32, Matthew 18:3

Desire is part of what it means to be a child, as implied in Jesus’ words to his disciples when he tells them, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never ente...

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Mental Health Today

Author

Alan Noble

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Scripture

1 Kings 19:1-18, Job 3:6-7, Lamentations 3:17-26, Matthew 26:36-46, 2 Corinthians 1:3-11, Psalm 42:5-11

We don’t know what we are doing, and I think this is especially true about the way our society deals with mental health. In just the past fifteen years, I have witnessed a massive shift in how evangel...

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The Ultimatum

Author

Walter Isaacson

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Famed scientist Albert Einstein once delivered an ultimatum to his first wife, Mileva Maric. True to his scientific nature, Einstein expressed his demands without any trace of kindness or empathy, ins...

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Some Ground-Rules for Developing Resilience

Author

Gordon MacDonald

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I’m not sure that I could have articulated the ground rules for the search for resilience the way I understand them today, but I must have intuited them nevertheless. Some of the basic ideas were thes...

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Discipleship Begins with Active Listening

Author

Adam S. McHugh

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Scripture

1 Samuel 3:9-10, Deuteronomy 6:4-5 , Matthew 4:19-20, John 10:27, Luke 11:28, Psalm 85:8

The interplay between listening and obedience expresses itself in our lives all the time. Sound has the ability to “command” us, to summon a response in us, forcing us to take notice. Unlike visual ...

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Waking Up to the Illusion of Control

Author

Alan Fadling

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With the New Year comes resolutions. But are your resolutions an attempt to assert control over your life, rather than submit to God's transformational plans? Alan Fadling offers his wisdom as a p...

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Climbing the Pastor's Ladder: Holy Ambition and Escaping the Comparison Trap

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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We pastors don't drive fancy cars or rake in the dough (most of us, anyway). But there is still a temptation to a skewed version of "holy success" that we need to watch out for, the idea...

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The North and South of Temperament

Author

Anne Bogel

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Even though Carl Jung first introduced the terms introvert and extravert back in 1921 (in his now-classic volume Psychological Types), the concepts—especially introversion—crashed into the public’s co...

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Working On Our Muscle Memory: Sermon Illustration Tuesday

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Change

Scripture

Luke 15:null

Editor’s Note: The following illustration came from one of my own sermons, as I was trying to help a congregation see itself not as a building, but the body of Christ. It has been adapted for TPW: No...

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Always Make Sure You Are Aiming at the Right Target

Author

Vance Pitman

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If you were lucky enough to watch the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, you probably remember swimmer Michael Phelps bursting onto the international scene. Phelps won six medals in those ga...

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Author

James K. A. Smith

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Worship, then, needs to be characterized by hospitality; it needs to be inviting. But at the same time, it should be inviting seekers into the church and its unique story and language. Worship should ...

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