Becoming a Redemptive Train Wreck

I have been reading a lot about relationships lately, mostly because relationships are something I fail. Being around other people magnifies my sin. Talking to other people amplifies the hissing and crackling sounds of self-pity, self-focus and self-reliance that play like a bad eight track tape in my soul. I would like to say that other people are my problem... but it seems I am the constant factor.

I am reading War of Words: Getting to the Heart of Your Communication Struggles by Paul David Tripp. It's putting a great big hurt to my ego. Here's a bit of what Tripp says that makes me say, ouch!

"Winning the war of words means speaking redemptively, and speaking redemptively is rooted in a restoration perspective on relationships. The purpose of human relationships is not human happiness. it is the work of reconciling people to God and restoring them to the image of His son.
"Winning the war of words means never forgetting who we are. When we remember that we are what we are because of God's mercy alone, we speak with gentleness and humility as God's restorers. How often our talk to one another lacks this gentleness and humility! We faith to speak redemptively because we have forgotten who he is and what he is doing in our relationships. We fail to speak with gentleness and humility because we have forgotten who we are and our own dependence on his grace."

I had someone tell me once that I was a subtle as a train wreck. My best friend has said that I should come with a warning, "If you don't want to know what I think, don't ask me for my opinion." Now all I have to do is find a way to be a humble redemptive train wreck...


1 Peter 4:10-11
10 As each one has received a {special} gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
11 Whoever speaks, {let him speak,} as it were, the utterances of God; whoever serves, {let him do so} as by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
(NAS)