Are you pontificating?

byherinnelson

9K followers

8 years ago

WE ALL DO THIS.

Do you sometimes want to relay something to someone so intensely that you begin to pontificate?---Sometimes to the point of shouting?

I actually heard this word in a recent Hallmark movie and it stuck with me. A mother was trying to drill some sense into her daughter and she said, "Forgive me. I don't mean to be pontificating."

WHOA!

Let me back up here. The word PONTIFICATE means to express opinions in an annoying and dogmatic (assertive, insistant) way. ex: to preach, lay down the law, sound off, sermonize, moralize, bloviate--LECTURE!

LET'S FOCUS ON THIS.

No matter how much our leaders relay things to us, we sometimes don't get it. Do we just breeze through the training without really understanding it, just to get it done? Do we drift away momentarily in a daydream?

THE PATIENCE OF SAINTS.

The leaders don't pontificate, but simply tell and teach things how they are. If they were sitting in front of us, it may be a different story altogether! If I were they, I would be screaming to drill it into our heads! I would preach, lecture and lay down the law thinking, "Why are they not getting this!"

Questions are often repeated that are in the training. We all have asked things that we could just look up most of the time. They have the patience of saints, and I'm not preaching to the choir here! (lol)

ARE YOU HEARING ME?

Have you ever had someone speak over you to try to get a point across, drumming something at you in a moral attempt to let you know how they feel about something? They are trying so hard to instill something into you, but you just aren't hearing them. We all have had that happen at one time or another.

I HEAR YA!

My point being, that we need to establish a more focused outlook on things we are dealing with---LISTEN MORE INTENTLY, HEAR MORE CLEARLY, FOCUS MORE ATTENTIVELY---so that people won't have to pontificate over us.

As parents, we try to drive good habits and lessons into our children's minds, pontificating over and over again until they get it. Sometimes WE also tune out what our children are saying to US, as we focus on something else.

As spouses, we have to repeat ourselves several times due to lack of attention on the other one's part, and vice versa.

IN A WORLD ALL OUR OWN.

In this world today, computers, video games, ipods, cell phones and other technical devices are getting in the way of our PERSONAL communication. How do we overcome this? Our youth are so deeply rooted in their minds to have a normal conversation, labeling them as introverts.

So, how can we rectify this? We can LISTEN the first time!!! Then, others won't have to pontificate at us.

TAKE A BREAK ALREADY!

We need to all make it a point not to consume ourselves in our work, the TV, our cell---avoiding others (especially loved ones) as a result...or, whatever it is that causes us to tune everyone out.

THE HERE AND NOW.

Let's open our eyes and ears. See the world. Stop and smell the roses, listen with our heart, converse, share, discuss, plan and smile. Doesn't that feel much better?

Erin :)!