Latest / Prayer Before Work / Watching Them Make the Mistake You Already Made - Prayer Before Work
Transcript
- Sean Graver: So you're watching a coworker make the same mistake you made two years ago. I mean, step by step. And every part of you wants to walk over there and just tell them to stop and then tell them how to fix it. Well, hey, this is Sean. Welcome back to Prayer Before Work. You know, you know exactly what they're doing wrong. You've lived through it. You could save them days or weeks of frustration with one conversation. But they didn't ask you. And something in you knows that walking over there uninvited might not land the way you want it to. Well, Proverbs 25:11 gives a picture worth holding on to here. It says, A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver. Now that phrase fitly spoken isn't a phrase we use very often, and and it's not. Just about having the right words. It's about having the right words at the right time offered the right way. So the same piece of advice can be given as a gift or an insult, depending entirely on whether it was invited. Advice nobody asks for tends to land as criticism, even when you meant it as help, because it usually communicates something you didn't intend. That you've been watching and judging their performance. So what do you do with what you're seeing? You can look for an opening instead of forcing one. Or maybe a simple question like, would it help if I shared how I handled something similar? That hands them the choice instead of assuming they want your input. If they say yes, well, you've earned the right to speak into that. And if they say no or don't ask, you may just need to let them learn it the way you did, the hard way. And that's not your failing to help. I mean, sometimes the most helpful thing you can do is respect that someone else's process doesn't have to look like yours. And trust that that same lesson will find them eventually, even without your intervention. Let's pray. Well, God, we see people struggling with things we already know how to fix. And and it's hard to hold back. Give us the wisdom to know when our words would actually help and when they would just be unwanted noise. Help us ask instead of assume and and offer instead of instead of insisting. And where we do get the chance to speak into someone's situation, give us words that will land as a gift instead of judgment. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. And go make today count.