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Article Title:	Conversational Ping-Pong
Author of reported comment:	Lynda
Comment Date:	11:03 on Sep 8 2010
Comment:	A great article, Paul, and a salutory reminder to engage the brain before engaging the mouth! Years ago I was aware that I never quite knew how to move the conversation on, ending up rabbling on about some topic which revolved around me, rather than the other person. I like to think I have moved on from those days and now make a deliberate effort to ask questions and get the conversation more revolved around their life. However, because this takes effort we all to easily fall into 'me, myself and I' again. Even recently I found myself reflecting on a conversation I had just had with someone, and to my shame realised that I couldn't remember anything I had learnt about them, I was just replaying my own spoken sentences. Nevertheless, when I am more disciplined and really try to find out about the other person, I sometimes find hidden riches to their life and can do much to build that person up. On other occasions I am surprised to discover mutual acquaintances, and we end up 'networking' to each other's benefit. Proverbs contains much helpful and challenging advise about our speech, including "The power of life and death are in the tongue." (Prov 18: 21) If we really took that to heart, we would find ourselves being far more careful about what we say.

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