G-TRAX Devo's-Relationships: Say What? Read online

Relationships:

  "Say What"

  Ron Fast

  [email protected]

  Copyright 2002 by Ron Fast

  Intro

  Imagine that God allowed you to take a trip to heaven and tour His palace. Somehow you were transported to heaven. There you stood at the doors to His palace. They looked pretty cool. You knocked on the door and God opened it up and said to you, “Welcome, . I have been expecting you. I understand you want a tour of my palace”. You are just a little shaky, Okay, you are like really totally freaked out because you are standing in the presence of God. You try to answer Him but the words aren’t coming out quite right. “Uh. . . Yeah. . . Duh. . . How. . . Uh. . Um. . are you?. . . I am f...fine. I’d lllike to take a loo...loo...look around.” After you finally get those words out, He starts leading you down a long white hallway with hundreds of doors on each side. As you walk past the rooms you read the signs over the doors. “Angel Parts Room . . . Fish Parts Room . . . Shrubbery Design Room . . . Things that Have Furry Tails Design Room . . . Furry Tails Closet. . .Linens. . . Bathroom #999999999999999999999999991. You keep walking and pass a “You’re Here” map, showing where you are in God’s huge palace. You continue to walk and read the signs over the doors. Archangel Michael’s Room . . . Lucifer’s Room (now a storage closet) . . . Extra Planets Storage Room. . . Orphan Moons Room . . . Galaxy Designs that didn’t work Room . . . Human-Type-People Design Room.

  You stop and turn to God. “What’s in the ‘Human-Type-People Design Room?”

  God answered, “It’s a room where I designed each human that ever lived or will ever live. I drew the designs up before time began. I have designed man, woman and child to be unique. I never used the same design twice. I started each design from scratch.”

  “But what about twins?” you ask.

  “Even twins are different and unique”, said God.

  “Would you like to take a look inside?”

  “Would I ever. That’d be so cool.”

  As you enter the room, you notice that on one side of the room there were lots of drawers. In the middle of the room there was a huge design table with all sorts of writing and designing tools on it. There was a stool by the table and a bright light over the table. There was a coffee pot that looked like it had been used a lot. There was some old coffee . . .well it actually looked like tar, on the bottom of the coffee pot. One of the walls had shelves with hundreds of cans of paint on them. Another wall was covered with cubby holes. Each of the cubby holes were fill with rolls of paper. There was a name of a human-type-person over each hole.

  You walk to the wall where the drawers are and begin to read the labels on the drawers. . . Eye balls. . . Noses. . . Ears. . . Belly Buttons. . . Nose Hairs. . . Finger Nails. . . Big Toes. . . Freckles. Zits . . . Moles. . . Moles with Hair Sticking Out. . . Brown Hair..

  Then you noticed that there was a drawer with a label that looked like this:

  N Tongues—Caution: very Dangerous

  You ask God why it was labeled like that. God said, “Because the tongue is one body part that can be used to help someone or hurt them. I originally created them so that they could be used to build people up and so that humans would be able to tell each other how much they loved and cared for others. But since sin entered the world, people have been using them to hurt each other. Tongues are dangerous because they can do more damage than any other part of the body. I created the tongue so that you and I could talk. I created them so that you could sing to Me. But sin changed all of that. I wanted children to be able to tell their parents how much they loved them and how much they valued them. I wanted parents to tell their children how much they loved them. I wanted families to sit down together and talk about the things they like or don’t like. I wanted them to tell each other when they are hurt or when they aren’t feeling well. But most of the time, they use their tongue to shout and yell at each other. They use it to call each other names that aren’t very nice.”

  You get a sad look on your face and say to God, “That’s so sad. I’ve even used my tongue to hurt people, especially when I’m tired or hurt or too busy or angry. It’s hard to talk sometimes with my parents because they don’t understand me or they don’t have time to sit and listen. Or sometimes they’ll want to talk but I don’t have time. Sometimes I just don’t want to talk to them.”

  Obviously this is just a story and doesn’t give a true picture of what God’s palace is like or even if he has a palace but the stuff about the tongue is true. This week we are going to take a look at how family members should communicate with each other. God gave each of us the gift of speech and it’s our responsibility to use it as God intended. I think that there are times when each of us use it for something other than what God had intended.

  Monday

  How well do you Communicate?

  This week we are going to focus on your communication skills with your parents. Let’s find out first how you feel about the way you and your parents are communicating.

  Put an “X” on the line below where you feel you are at with your parents.

  How often during the week would you say you talk to your parents about things in your life?

  Is it difficult for you to talk to your parents about stuff? Why is it difficult?

  How often do you argue with your parents during the week?

  What subject usually starts the argument?

  Who usually started the argument, you or your parents?

  Who do you feel more comfortable talking to, your Mom or Dad? Why?

  What are some of the issues that you and your parents fight over?

  What are issues that you would like to talk to your parents about?