Free Paper on Truthful Communication: A Path to Authentic Relationships and Spiritual Fulfillment

Turn-taking is an essential tool in our day-to-day conversations that we carry out with coworkers, friends, and family, or even strangers we meet. The way we present our message impacts us as talkers and portrays a particular aspect of our personality or thoughts to the listener. The effectiveness of the information is determined by how honest and sincere we are at that specific moment. When sharing with our inmates, sometimes I get personal with what I share hence provoking bad energies from the listener, which at the end of the day can result in broken friendships.

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The amicable way to prevent such occurrences in our daily lives is by learning to conduct our communication truthfully and using the TLC techniques explained by Petersen (2015). Briefly, we can examine the talker listener card (TLC) practices and the transparency of the message we send out in different situations of our lives. Individually I have found the techniques explained by Petersen more effective in my communication, and the way I express myself has taken a different turn overall than before. As a talker, we are to manage our emotions from getting the better part of our mind because as we get more emotional, we lose control of what we share and start becoming defensive in our minds.

The case with Sharon is not that different from mine (Schultze and Badzinski, 2015). I am never honest in presenting myself mostly because I do not want people to get inside and learn how wrecked my life is. Lying has made me walk away from God, and some bad things have happened in my life because of not being sincere about what I share with others. The holy scripture teaches honesty and faithfulness in our day-to-day activities. This includes being truthful on what we tell others and allowing others to help us make significant steps to make better persons.

In my context, I have realized that most of my relationships have not worked because I do not tell the truth about myself, which later when my partner starts to learn the weakness I have, finds everything insignificant. I can attest to this because, as humans, we mask our true identity in lies to avoid being judged by the people we love in the name of protecting them. In the real sense, being honest and transparent from the beginning will help them understand what we are going through and allow our souls to overcome the challenges. The Bible teaches that being sincere, even in small actions, brings you closer to God, and the love of God protects us from any harm. The job was presented with many temptations by the devil. Still, his communication with God remained truthful and faithful all the time, even when his wife became impatient and encouraged him to offend God and die.

When we fail to learn and own our mistakes, we ruin our internal peace, and of course, our communication and the message we share become tainted with many lies. This happens because we do not give room to the holy spirit to communicate with us. We get blinded by the worries, what if so and so knows that I am a terrible person in relationships! They will reject me from being friends; I will be alone. These insecurities make us tell lies because if my former relationship never worked out, it doesn't mean that I am the only one who got offended; what if I am the cause? I should be honest and tell the truth so that the new person can understand me and help me become a better partner.

Another aspect is being open and facing the problem head-on. When discussing a personal issue with my pastor, I forget that I am the person with the problem and start questioning the pastor about why God doesn't answer my prayers. I forget that I am the person to speak to God in truth and honesty about my needs because God listens. I tend to assume my burdens to the pastor to communicate to God on my behalf, and that is what happens with most Christians when sharing their inherent problems with their pastors.

The talker cues expressed by Petersen also can impact how the information we present is translated. If I am too emotional, I will break and miscommunicate my problems; thus, my listener's response will not be what I expect. I become judgy and feel attacked in my own words. The same thing will happen when speaking to God. I am not get content with how I have presented my needs to God. Nicodemus from the bible asked how to get a share in heaven, and Jesus told him to be born again, and he wondered how someone be born when they are old. Jesus told him no one could enter God's kingdom unless they were born of water and the spirit. In the end, Nicodemus does not amend his relationship with God because Jesus instructed him to lose his worldly pleasure to the poor. Jesus further says whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God (John 3:1-21). If we are not transparent and faithful, even what we ask from God becomes meaningless.

Reference

Petersen, J. (2015). Why Don't We Listen Better?: Communicating & Connecting in Relationships.

Quentin J. Schultze and Diane M. Badzinski,(2015) An Essential Guide to Interpersonal Communication Baker Academic, a division of Baker Publishing Group.