Communication and Mutual Problem Solving

(June 24-28)
I loved our discussion this week about Communication and Mutual Problem Solving. I think that people often get caught up on the importance of communicating hurt feelings or dissatisfaction and we forget that the most important thing to communicate is just the opposite--satisfaction and happiness in relationships! Can you see how selfish that is? "I want to make sure that you know every little thing you do that upsets me...but I don't want  to make any effort to let you know what you're doing right." Now, in actuality, I don't think it's so malignant as that--but rather, we just tend to be pretty thoughtless when it comes to good communication. To me, good communication is communicating well all the time--it's really a matter of always talking about how you feel about everyone and everything in your life, so that your spouse is involved and aware.
Brother Williams shared a few quotes that I absolutely loved. The first was this:

You can never not communicate.

How true is that? It doesn't matter if we're speaking or not speaking, turning towards or turning away, we are always communicating something. Because of that, it is so important to be aware and careful of what we communicate to those we love. Another quote I really loved went something like this:

We need to communicate not only so clearly that we can be understood, but so clearly that we cannot be misunderstood.

I think everyone has heard plenty about how important communication is, and all the skills we supposedly need to develop--I-statements, active listening, reflective statements, etcetera--and they're all valuable to an extent. But I submit that if we would just remember these two statements, that's pretty much all we need to know about communicating. I also want to add that one of the greatest things you can do to improve a relationship is thank your Father in Heaven in prayer for your spouse--thank Him every night for giving you someone who loves you so much, and then in moments of agitation, you'll be reminded that you are grateful to have that person in your life, and you don't know what you'd do without them.