Sunday, August 17, 2008

Personal Disclosure

Lest the title mislead you, I'm not going to make a personal disclosure (Gosh, don't I do that enough?). I'm going to talk about personal disclosure.

During Sunday School today, we were talking about fear. Having a lot of experience with the subject, I shared more personal information than I normally would. (Side note: Last week I shared something much more personal with the class than anything I said today, but I'm pretty sure last week's class had no idea how personal it was. It's one of those things you only share when you need to, when other people need to hear it.) I apologized to the class for all the personal disclosure, but I wasn't actually sorry. Over the past few months, I find I am most comfortable teaching when I am sharing my own experiences. This may be because I know and understand my own experiences so well, whereas my knowledge of the scriptures is limited and I sometimes feel awkward sharing something on which I am not an expert. But today, I saw things a little differently. When we share personal information with someone, we are essentially saying, "I trust you with this part of me." Generally, when we give trust, we receive trust in return. If you open yourself up to someone else, they are more likely to risk opening themselves to you. And when we are open to each other, we will love and learn from one another. Of course all of this has to be done appropriately, so that it is in the interest of establishing trust and teaching rather than feeding one's own vanity. That said, I'm rather exhausted from the effort of overcoming my fears today, and I would like to sleep for the next 3 days.

Current song: None. I am too tired for singing or thinking.

3 comments:

Bob said...

Some of my best lessons in life have come either from my personal experience, or someone teling me of their personal experience....

BrookeJean said...

I came across your blog due to "The Event". Anyway, I don't want to discuss politics. All I want is to finally know a good way to figure out a tip for a pizza delivery person. I always feel bad because I never know if it's enough. I want to know what you feel is a good way to determine a good pizza delivery tip.

Many Thanks and much luck in your new adventure.

Sad for a While said...

Brooke Jean,

I never knew how much to tip pizza delivery persons until I became one. Fifteen per cent, the same you'd tip a server at a restaurant, is a good rule of thumb. However, if I get less than $3, regardless of the order total, I consider it a bad tip, unless the delivery is within a couple blocks of the restaurant, in which case $2 is my minimum. Once the order gets big enough--say, $50--you're safe to tip 10%, but we always appreciate your generosity :)

Thanks for not talking about politics.