Monday, July 2, 2012

Should I use a question mark or an exclamation point?! Levitiicus 10-12

Questions seek to clarify, while statements seem to condemn.   In this story (Leviticus) of misunderstanding between Moses and his brother Aaron we have a great example of how to avoid further conflict in a conflicting moment.   The principle we should follow in a problem is to never let how we handle a problem, become a new problem and more predominant problem.  When Moses "thought" his brother Aaron should have offered a sacrifice in a different manner he could have immediately "condemned" Aaron.  After all we just read the story of Aaron's two sons offering an improper offering and both of the were immediately consumed by fire (see last years devotional).   So, everyone was rather sensitive about "doing the sacrifice" in the proper manner.   If Moses would have made a condemning statement, not only would the situation escalate, he would have been wrong.   But, instead of "confronting" Moses sought to "clarify."   Instead of using an "!", Moses used a "?" at the end of his sentence.  That difference between a straight line and a bent line can make the difference between a bent conversations and a straight solution.    Once Moses asked a question and Aaron answer it, the thing "seemed" right to Moses.   We do so much poor work in the conflict world when we used periods and exclamation points behind our sentences rather than question marks.   In the next conflict you have make sure you seek to clarify with questions rather than condemn with statements ... hard statements!

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