New! Personal stories from fellow Christians to help you grow.
Email is dangerous. When used to communicate and confirm factual information (e.g. directions, meeting summaries, financial results, etc.) email does its job well. For anything else, sending an email is like shooting a gun with a blindfold on - you might hit the target, but you're just as likely to cause unintentional damage. With only our words (and the occasional emoji) to help us interpret the sender's message, there is much that can be misunderstood when we communicate with email. And this can easily be forgotten when we press "send".
"The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing." Proverbs 12:18
So I appreciated this piece wisdom I heard yesterday:
When emails are received with feedback, criticism or complaints, one pastor asks that the sender meet with them to read the email aloud. They explain that they want to ensure that they read the email with the tone and emphasis intended by the sender.
With this principle in place, email would be sent with a greater degree of care and potential misunderstandings would be much less likely to occur.
