…stop and think.  And stop and think again.  Re-read what you wrote.  5 times.  Maybe even sleep on it. Especially if you’re feeling irritated, upset, emotional or self-righteous  .  Jeepers, some of the stuff I’ve seen fly across cyberspace and land on my friends’ blogs and even in my own inbox, isn’t as it should be.  There’s  a saying that goes, “measure twice and cut once”.  Good policy.  Takes a little more time, but saves the effort later of trying to fix what you just haphazardly destroyed.  Let’s not be the kind of folks who, when communicating with others, “measure once and cut twice,” left with or leaving others with, a lot of pieces needing to be picked up and ‘glued’ back together.

I think it takes maturity to restrain oneself when everything inside is screaming “retaliate – let ‘em have it – set ‘em straight – NOW!“  Perhaps at that very moment we’re hormonal, touchy, we haven’t heard clearly, misperceived a motive or we haven’t heard both sides of the story or we need to consider where someone is at and give some grace because of what’s contributed to their moronic behavior .

A full 30+% of all email communication is perceived as having a negative slant.  Fact.  Let’s give the grace we want to receive. We’re all guilty as charged but we can all change.

Have a great weekend.