God Speaks Daily

“If you talk long enough, maybe you’ll say something.”

When I first heard this, my father was making fun of a long-winded person. I found this humorous so I wrote it down.

As I thought about it more, I realized in many cases, people use speaking to build community.

For example, when I was first attending train shows with my dad, I had a lot of book knowledge about the trains. I would sit down with these old men and basically vomit up what I had read in the books.

None of the men cared or wanted to hear what I had to say.

Part of it was my surely my age. As a preteen I wasn’t accepted by all the forty and fifty-something collectors.

But, a bigger part was I was trying to force my knowledge on them in an attempt to be recognized and welcomed. I really didn’t have any knowledge, or at least none that came from experience.

As I got older and more mature, I stopped trying to buy my way into communities with my knowledge. Instead I started allowing people to come to me with their questions. I also started gaining knowledge from experience.

Today, I don’t have to impress people by being knowledgeable. All I have to do is be open and welcoming. When I’m available people will seek out my knowledge.

“It doesn’t have to be profound to be important.”

When I first started my writing career, I thought I needed to be profound. This caused me to waste countless amounts of my time.

One day I mentioned this problem to a friend. He said, “Terry, it doesn’t have to be profound to be important.  It just has to be information people can use presented in a way they can understand.”

Later, I as opened up and shared more of my story with others I came to understand even the most basic information could be profound.

“Anything that has an effect on someone is profound.”

All the sayings I am sharing on GodSpeaksDaily.com have had positive impacts on my life so they must be profound.

Today, I still occasionally fall into the trap of trying to be profound.  When I start feeling the need to be profound, this saying keeps me on track and helps me stay grounded.

“If you run from yourself, your cage will flee with you.”

This is the first saying I ever wrote down.  This was a line on the front paper of a science fiction novel.  This is a quote from a guy named Thurban, who wrote it back in the 15th Century.

Back then I thought, “Oh, that is so deep that I’ll write it down.”  Sadly I proceeded to run from myself for decades.  If I only knew then what I know now, my life would have been much easier.

This saying is about self-honesty.  About self-accountability, self-responsibility.  And I had none of those things.

I didn’t like myself and avoided thinking about myself. I sought validation from the people around me, and compared myself to others in worse straights to bolster my self worth.

I fled from myself first with fantasy and later with drugs and alcohol. The worse my life got, the harder I ran.

Decades later I started being honest with myself and  stopped fleeing from myself