“Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone.”

When we get put, “On the spot”, it can be very uncomfortable.  So much so that the words that come out of our mouth at that moment could lead to much bigger problems for ourselves.  This is why we train business leaders to be ready for inquiries from investors, media or analysts and those that aren’t trained aren’t given access or are told to tell others that they are not allowed to speak externally of the company.  We all have many examples of those who when put on the spot walk away from that moment in regret.  And this can happen internally as well.  The lesson to learn is the same; when we are put on the spot, we are to take a deep breath, step back and as best we can not have to answer or respond in the moment.  More often that not, we can tell the person asking that we will get back to them and use time to our advantage to get us off the spot.  We can’t always avoid being on the spot, but we can manage how we handle ourselves when the moment comes.

There is a reason that gossip is considered bad. It’s because gossip begins with one person putting another person on the spot to talk about someone else.  And when that happens we can end up hurting someone else and ourselves.  I am thinking of two people in particular where no matter who you hear from these two people are known by everyone to have nothing good to say about anyone else.  How lonely it must be for them as others will avoid being with them.  This is the other side of what we are taught in Colossians.  If we start from a place of being gracious and attractive in our language, then it will be much harder for us to either gossip or when put on the spot about anything to not be “good” in our response.

Reference: Colossians 4:6 (New Living Translation)