8.19- Arrogance and conceit can kill a good conversation.

 8.19-

Arrogance and conceit can kill a good conversation.

Crash and a light cover and falls and all of a sudden something that was going well is completely off track.

I got a roof put on last week after having been in this house for ten years and many hail storms. The crew was here from 6 .15am to about 8.15pm with a two our lunch and siesta in the heat of the day. I noticed that as they left the leader said another guy would be here tomorrow to clean up. I looked out the windows and doors and didn’t see anything they had left to clean up.

I can be having a good conversation with someone in my family or friendship circle and if I get on a “high horse” of self righteousness or a “soap box” of my opinions and traditions being some edict from heaven then my good conversation becomes one way and without any joyful interchange of ideas.

This morning I was thinking how my morning was distracted by opening my laundry room door and there on the floor was a million pieces of glass because the bulb cover had fallen and shattered. I got the broom and a makeshift dust pan. That glass had gone under the door and under the washer and dryer and places I would not have guessed. Broken glass spreads further than I thought it would.

So my arrogance and conceit about what I know and want to push out to you can shut down good learning and mutual learning. My hopes about mutual learning can get crushed like the glass cover to my light bulb.

Then next day after my roofers were here a couple of guys came early in the morning. They had a device that looked like small garage broom. It was metal. There were sweeping my yard for nails with this magnetic device. They went all over the lawn. They shook the bushes and covered the ground under the bushes. They appeared to be very thorough.

I tried to be excellent at cleaning up the glass in my laundry room and kitchen area. I usually walk around my house barefoot. I sweep deeply and thoroughly and took a wet towel and went over the whole area.

I think I need to clean up my conversations with my family and friends. All arrogance, conceit, deceit and exaggeration needs to be gone. All high horses and soap boxes and edicts from on high need to be gone. A learning spirit and mutual listening and speaking must develop and suddenly mutual joy, laughter and learning can happen among those I love most.

Philippians 4.

2 Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any [a]affection and compassion, 2 make my joy complete [b]by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. 3 Do nothing [c]from [d]selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility consider one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Have this attitude [e]in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, as He already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be [f]grasped, 7 but [g]emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and [h]being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death [i]on a cross. 9 For this reason also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.