I lost count of how many JoJoisms I have written, but I started writing some of them when I was a teenager. I’m getting dangerously close to 60 so…that’s a LONG time! I thought you might like to take a little walk down memory lane with me.
This was the first JoJoism I ever actually wrote down. Up until then, I had just been voicing my funny commentary on life. At this point, I had been studying communication skills in college when this little gem crossed my mind. I didn’t actually create it in visual format until I was writing for my Art of Eloquence site.
At that time, I was trying to find fun ways of providing communication tips to my students and my Facebook fans who were mostly homeschoolers. It’s kind of ironic now, but I felt society was moving in a dangerous direction as social media and online groups began to spring up. People were emboldened to speak up, but often did so with anger because they didn’t need to look the person in the eye.
After a long while of sounding the alarm for gracious speech, I realized that people no longer took responsibility for the way in which they spoke. Freedom of speech began to take on a different hue. Instead of being a right that Americans have to say what’s on our mind, it became an excuse for speaking in anger or condescension or violence. And it’s only gotten to be more of a problem since Corona!
I felt a renewed leading from the Lord to champion speaking in grace as the more our nation is divided, the more we need to be effective in speaking out for what we believe is right. And that begins with us taking responsibility for how we speak as well as what we say.
It is the speaker’s job to be understood. It isn’t the listener’s job to figure out what the speaker meant. That means we need to speak in grace and speak directly to the audience we are addressing. That means knowing them and speaking to them instead of AT them. I’ll be addressing this more over on my Art of Eloquence blog each week, but I wanted to share the back story behind my very first JoJoism that I wrote down and created in visual format.
It’s ironic how timely this all is. I was inspired. I guess the Lord knew I’d be recommitting to both my JoJoisms blog and my Art of Eloquence blog just when it’s most important. What say you about the way people have been communicating with each other these days?
