Persuasiveness
“And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful.” – 2 Timothy 2:24
Definition (Persuasive): Good at convincing someone to do or believe something through reasoning or the use of temptation.
Reason Chosen: I have recently heard of classes in logic. I love that idea. The concept is basically learning to think through and argue things from a logical perspective. If we can teach our kids the value of being persuasive, then we can help them become good leaders. If you feel like you have something to offer, being able to lovingly get across your point of view can be very valuable. I have had some leadership training recently that involves really listening and learning to truly care for people. It is a different approach to the concept of persuasiveness. The idea is that you learn to really care about people. Part of that is learning to listen well and ask very good questions. Rather than just spitting out what you think or what you think the answer is, you help them think it through by posing great questions. The end goal is to bring it back to a Biblical perspective and what God might say about it through His Word. However, the concept is that you can try and convince someone as much as you want, but in the end, things will become more real to them if you can aid them in finding their own conclusions while also pointing to Jesus. It also involves creating deep relationships so you have earned the right to be heard. Because of this training, my bent on persuasiveness might be a tad different than you might assume. I also know we are living in a post-modern world that wants to convince us that everything is right. Whatever is good for you is good. We have to have complete tolerance and acceptance of whatever is out there because there are no absolutes. In a world that teaches that, there is no need for persuasiveness because there is no truth. With this perspective, I am all the more convinced it is that much more important to approach the people we interact with in a loving and yet persuasive way. We need to be able to combat the post modern views in a logical way and be able to ask, “Does that really make sense?” Should we say what you believe is good for you? Then, we could be perfectly fine with terrorists blowing up buildings and cars for their interpretation of their religion or people setting African American homes on fire because of their interpretation of their religion. How can be possibly place some sort of moral standard that those things are wrong if we need to be a tolerant people? We have to accept everything as OK because it’s good for you. Logically, it doesn’t make sense to me. It also doesn’t make sense that everyone is right because everyone is teaching contradictory concepts. How can everyone be right if everything is different. Does that mean we persuade people with hate and cruelty? NO! Love! Part of living in this post modern world is being able to really understand the importance of the right approach in persuasiveness. We are called to be as “wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” – Matthew 10:16 That was kind of a tangent. Hope it all makes sense.
Word Ring At the beginning of each week, the craft will be exactly the same because we will simply be adding a new word to our already established word ring.
Materials Needed
* Stock Card Paper (I had a whole stack like this – found at any craft store)
* Assorted Sticker Letters (I just bought a bunch on clearance at Michael’s)
* Binder Clips (Craft Store)
* Paper Cutter or Scissors
* Hole Punch
The girls chose a paper style they thought would look good with the letters they chose. We then helped them sound out “persuasiveness.” They took turns finding the letters we needed and sticking them on the paper…they’re kids – the letters will not be stuck on perfect. I then cut the paper to the same size as the paper from last week. We punched a hole in the corner and stuck it on our binding clip. Each week, a new word will be added to the clip in similar fashion. I then wrote the Bible verse on the back. If your kids are older, have them do it themselves. We’ll spend this week learning the word, meaning and memorizing the scripture.
