Last week we joined over 400 other believers from the DOVE Family from 22 nations around the globe at our international leadership conference. Have you ever noticed that it is always the other one who has the accent! Never you! Unconsciously, we always come from the posture that our speech is normal and everyone else has the variation, the abnormal, the hard to figure out and understand. I wonder how many other areas in life we do the same thing. I am the normal one and if you don’t think like me, act like me, respond like me, you are the anomaly. When in reality I may be the one that is different.
Far better to think that I may be the one who is different, the one who needs to clarify what I am thinking and trying to communicate. Explaining what it looks like seeing things through my lens which may be different than anyone else and acknowledging that I may be the one who is different because after all, I am not the standard by which the world is to live by, merely a product of my surroundings and experiences. When I posture myself from the perspective that I may be the one with an accent and people find it hard to understand me, I am much more gracious toward others. Frankly stated, you my friend have an accent. But don’t worry, we all do!
D.O.V.E.