Last posting I talked about “A Time to Speak” but in all fairness and to give “equal billing” I have to write about “A Time to Be Quiet”. We’ve all come to appreciate that there are those close friendships we develop as we journey down the road of life. The friendships where we can tell our companion the innermost activities of our lives and WE KNOW that what we tell them will never be shared with another soul. We can tell them things we’ve done in our lives, maybe some things that we are not very proud of that we had done, but we know we will not be judged and our secrets will continue to remain just that --- secrets! We know we can tell this person things that we would like to do or maybe things we plan to do and never have to worry that our confidence has been misplaced. At times this is not even true of those in positions of confidence: those who ARE NOT to divulge private information and yet it all too often becomes public knowledge. And this is often to the financial gain of the one who was told this information in private. It is truly a great gift and honored privilege to have such a confidant that we have come to know as one who will keep our private discussions always private and who will have OUR best interest at heart and not that of their own.
I have a very dear friend who used to tell me (jokingly): “I don’t have a problem keeping a secret. It’s all the people I tell who have the problem!” At times there may be some truth to that statement. We may “tell” someone some information thinking they already know what we are talking about. But the point is when we are told something in confidence it should remain that way until we are told by the person who informed us that it is alright to share the information. By doing otherwise we can bring hurt feelings and sometimes strained relationships into our lives. It could be something very simple. Your best friend has told you she is having a baby. She and her husband had been waiting a long time for this event to happen. You are extremely happy for her and you begin to tell all the acquaintances you know about the good news. When SHE goes to share her joyful news she finds out everyone already knows because YOU told them. Surely you could see how this would be somewhat disappointing to her.
This little experience happened to me. NO, I wasn’t expecting a baby and it’s not that it was some earth-shattering thing, but it did bring a little disappointment. It was the 25th anniversary of my wife and my wedding. I got off work a bit early and brought my wife a box of candy and a flower arrangement. When I got home I carefully opened the front door and my two young sons were in the front room. I asked them (quietly) where their mother was and they told me she was in the bedroom putting away laundry. So I came into the house with the box of candy and the flowers and my sons got really excited when they saw them. I motioned for them to calm down and told them: “Don’t say anything. I’m going to put the candy and the flowers on the kitchen table and we will just wait for your mother to find them.” We sat in the front room and shortly my wife came out of the bedroom. She looked at me a little funny and I told her I came home early from work so I could rest before we went out to eat. Almost immediately my sons began to jump up and down proclaiming: “Look on the kitchen table! You have a surprise!” And of course the surprise was over.
There are also occasions, events and locations were silence is expected. So there are obviously times when we need to be quiet. Perhaps you can think of such times in your life where you recognized there was a “time to be quiet!”
QUOTE TO CONSIDER
THOUGHTFUL GEM
"Love is the solution to ALL problems."
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