I have an article over at Blogging Basics 101 today all about traffic, subscribers, and guest posting! Come weigh in!
Anyone can share an opinion, but if you want your opinion to be effective (perhaps in persuading someone of something), there are some guidelines it would be prudent to follow.
8 Ways To Share Your Opinion Effectively
1. Share Your Opinion With Pure Motives
Why do you want to share your opinion? Think it about this for a moment - take some time to evaluate your motives. I personally have realized as of late that I tend to share my opinion in the hopes that people will agree with me. In and of itself, there is nothing wrong with that. The problem is if they don't end up agreeing with me or what I think is right, I feel an intense need to make them agree with me. I'm learning to let this go. If someone disagrees with me or my convictions, it's okay! My identity doesn't need to be wrapped up in other people's decisions.
"All a man's ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the LORD. Proverbs 16:2
2. Share Your Opinion With Wisdom & Care
If you truly care about someone and believe that what you have to say is important enough for them to hear it, be wise in how you approach them. Listen to them and draw them out. Let them see that you are genuinely interested in who they are and why they believe what they do.
"The purposes of a man's heart are deep waters, but a man of understanding draws them out." Proverbs 20:5
3. Share Your Opinion With Caution
Be very careful how you spout your opinions. Take the time to evaluate what you have to say before you say it. Pray. Perhaps it would be better to say little, or even nothing at all. Choose your words wisely.
"A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city, And contentions are like the bars of a citadel." Proverbs 18:19
"Rash language cuts and maims." Proverbs 12:18
4. Share Your Opinion With Humility
Sometimes it can be best to hold your tongue unless someone asks for your opinion. When you do decide to share your opinion unsolicited, remember that only God has cornered the market on truth. You may think you have the answer/s, but you are but a person who battles with a sin nature along with everybody else. Remember how sure you were about things when you were younger? I bet you've changed many strong opinions since then! Leave room for growth.
"Humility is to make a right estimate of oneself." Charles H. Spurgeon
"Do not be wise in your own eyes..." Proverbs 3:7
"...with humility comes wisdom." Proverbs 11:2
5. Share Your Opinion With A Soft Tongue
Always try and speak your opinions with kindness. Kindness beckons the ear to listen.
"...a gentle tongue can break a bone." Proverbs 25:15
"A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." Proverbs 15:1
6. Share Your Opinion In The Right Circumstances
Doing this often requires patience. If you want to convince someone of something, you might not want to start sharing your opinion while that person has a crying baby, getting ready to go somewhere, just lost a job, etc. Pay attention to the circumstances.
"Like apples of gold in settings of silver Is a word spoken in right circumstances." Proverbs 25:11
7. Share Your Opinion With Discernment
Use discernment with whom you share your opinion.
Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you, Reprove a wise man and he will love you. Proverbs 9:8
8. Share Your Opinion With Confidence
If you have prayed about it, or sense the Holy Spirit nudging you to speak truth to someone about something, then speak with confidence. We have confidence in the word of God and we can speak the truth boldly, in love and kindness, with caution, discernment, pure motives, and humility. How can we be humble and confident? We remain humble by keeping in mind that we are not the Holy Spirit; we trust God for the outcome.
In the fear of the LORD there is strong confidence, And his children will have refuge. Proverbs 14:26
In this technological age of email, chatting, and blogging, it can be tempting to forget that real people in real life with real issues/troubles/hurts are sitting behind the computer screen. We have the opportunity to shut down others with our words or enlighten them and bring good. As we journey together, let's continue to persevere in truth, authenticity, and kindness. (Effective opinions work for me!)
Don't forget to stop by Blogging Basics 101 and visit me!
Journey everyday with me here.
25 comments:
Beautiful! I may need to print that out and post it somewhere. Well done.
Great! I'm pleasantly surprised that all of this information was found right in Proverbs! Thanks for pulling it all together!
I hope your visit with your mom is going well! I told my mom's group about it and there wasn't a dry eye in the room. What a blessing!
Great reminder. Thanks so much.
Very effective use of Proverbs in this list of suggestions. I am taking a final exam for a class on Proverbs and Eccl. today.
thank you so much Sarah Mae! God really uses you in your blog, thankyou for listening and being so obedient to the call!
Sarah Mae
You are just a wise gal!
Very good advice.
Something we all should put into practice.
Thanks.
Those are wise and wonderful tips. I also tend to want to force people to agree with me...and it rarely works out well! LOL!
Great post, and to think that it's all biblical makes it even sweater.
It's amazing that if we follow biblical principals, life would be so much eaier
Thanks for the great post. I want to apply to my life.
This is a great post! Everyone thinks there opinion is the best including me...we just need to make sure we share it in a Godly way. Thank you so much for all of the verses that point out how to share our opinions.
So many wise words! This is a good reminder to be purposeful when we share our opinion. I agree with one of the other commenters - this is a good one to print out and read regularly.
My latest post: Deceived by Complacency
i REALLY your this post, it really helped me evaluate myself and how i conduct my conversions with other. God bless
www.zcouple.com
These are excellent Sarah Mae!! Thank you for sharing.
It is so important to share our views so eloquently. We want to draw others in, not drive them off. Although, sometimes it just can't be helped! LOL
Excellent advice Sarah Mae!! This really is important stuff to remember. I pray that I will know whether or not to share my opinions and what words to use.
Hope you are having a wonderful week!
Your article at Blogging Basics was right on!
This post is great. I enjoyed it. Gonna share some of these tips with my mom... ha ha
Have a great day
Jaime
This is such an important issue and something we should be so careful about. WE can hurt so much with our words, but also, we can encourage so much if we do it the right way.
Thanks for sharing
Great post! Motive really sticks out to me. I have to make sure they're pure. I was tested in this about 2 months ago and really convicted! With these guidelines we won't go wrong the next time we share our opinions. Thanks!
This is really sound advice. I might need to work on nos. 4 and 5!!
This was a great post that I would like to share. I stumbled over here today and just love what I have read. I do a share and tell on Friday to try to send my readers over to a new found great place. I would love to send everyone over to read this wonderful post.
Have a blessed Thursday.
Sherry@myjourney
Sarah Mae, this was so good. I could have used this list so many times, to remind me to wait on the Lord and the Holy Spirit's leading instead of just jumping in with my opinions. I long to have a meek and quiet/gentle spirit,..but I fail way too often.
Sometimes I am so sure that I am right about a topic, that I have not stopped to speak the truth in love.
I hope and pray I can practice these truths in the future.
I did print them out and I will keep them handy.
Thanks so much for posting these 8 ways to share our opinions effectively.
Linda @ Truthful Tidbits
I love that you started this with reminding us to examine our hearts and motives. What a good word, especially when it is backed by the Word! ~Blessings!
Oh Sarah, I am a day late with reading this post but I am glad that I did. I usually do not read late post because then I'd be reading all day and so forth, but I really did want to read this one from when you mentioned it the other day.
Anyway, you did great. You seem to have exercised each point you gave. Number four is one that smacked me in the face.
I also caught interest in number one because I just posted today about motives and happened to use the same scripture that you did.
Funny.
smooches,
Larie
This was such a GREAT post on sharing opinions! The scriptures were right on, Sarah Mae! Thanks so much for this! I tend to be very reserved about sharing my opinions because I truly want CHRIST to be the first thing people notice about me--not my opinions. But there are times when I feel God prompting me to stand up for His truth and to glorify Christ by lovingly speaking the Truth. I'm learning to bite my tongue, though, if it's my opinion and not necessarily the Truth of God's word.
Thank you for this wisdom!
"My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers. May 6, Liberty and the standards of Jesus
"A spiritually minded person will never come to you with the demand- "Believe this and that"; a spiritually-minded person will demand that you align your life with the standars of Jesus. WE are not asked to believe the Bible, but to believe the One whom the Bible reveals (John 5:39-40). We are called to present liberty for the conscience of others, not to bring them liberty for their thoughts and opinions. And if we ourselves are free with the liberty of Christ, others will be brought into that same liberty- the liberty that coms from realizing the absolute control and authority of Jesus Christ.
Always measue your life solely by the standards of Jesus. Submit yourself to His yoke, and His alone; and always be careful never to place a yoke on others that is not of Jesus Christ. It takes God a long time to get us to stop thinking that unless everyone sees things exactly as we do, they must be wrong. That is never God's view. There is only one true liberty -the liberty of Jesus at work in our conscience enabling us to do what is right.
Don't get impatient with others. Remember how God dealt with you- with patience and with gentleness. But never water down the truth of God. Let it have its way and never apologize for it. Jesus said, " Go ...and make disiples..."(Matthew 28:19), not, "Make converts to your own thoughts and opinions." Oswald Chambers
Wonderful tips! I need to print this pout and take it with me everywhere! LOL
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