Ian and Margaret’s conversation tips

In our marriage, Margaret and I have come to put into practice the following valuable tips that we hope will help you. There will be plenty of times when you’ll have to consider ways to bring the other person into the safe place of conversation.

• You may have to rephrase the point. Say it in a different way.
• You may have to say sorry for being too pushy in the conversation.
• You may have to back off.
• You may need to walk away and come back to it another day.
• You may have to recreate the picture in a more sensitive way.
• You may have to re-welcome the other person to tell you how they are hearing your point.
• You then may have to reconsider your initial approach.
• You may have to accept that the other person does not want anything out of the conversation.

If it involves someone close, you may have to just shut up and listen and not get cut up because they don’t show any interest in anything that is important to you. Just continue to invest love into the other person. It will come back to you one day. We reap what we sow.

Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding. (Proverbs 17:27 ESV)