Approach Without Reproach!
By Synesio Lyra, Jr.
There’s no better ingredient than tact, when seeking contact with other people. The same must be maintained if the new contact is to endure and become mutually edifying. Best-selling author, Charles Swindoll, reminds his readers that “all of us are drawn to those whose faces invite us in and urge us on.”
Those who approach people with a “yes” face, more than likely will connect with others if a positive posture can be maintained from that moment on! Meeting others needs to be carried on in a calm, sincere way.
From the outset, a person you meet must perceive sincerity in your intentions; the interest you manifest is to be in the individual rather than in whatever he or she can do for you. As the late Elton Trueblood had proposed, “we must let our lives speak, before our words can be heard!”
It’s far better when you talk less about yourself and more about the discernible, valuable qualities you encounter in this new acquaintance. If you appear before anybody with a hidden agenda, your tricks will be quickly discovered and you, yourself, may be just as swiftly dismissed from a potential, ongoing relationship of mutual trust.
Once I saw a poster that illustrates these concerns very accurately. It states that, “great people talk about ideas; average people talk about things; small people talk about other people.” A reality which cannot be denied is that the enthusiasm of some persons in calling attention to other
people’s faults will in no way erase or hide the evidence of their own mistakes!
Even if you may be accurate with your fault-finding in somebody else, you are not justified in maintaining that practice since you also are not without blemish. Jesus addressed the human bent on hypocrisy, when he complained in His Sermon on the Mount, “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3).
Author Jack Kahl comments that “the world revolves around relationships between people, and trust is at the heart of all human relationships.” Care should be given to develop and retain high quality relationships for mutual benefits.
Be pure in your motivation and sincere in your approach to people. Be sure that the image you wish to project to others corresponds to good intentions you purpose to bring into the relationship. Be sensitive to the peculiarities of other people!
Remember that several factors which may make you attractive to some may be void of the credibility necessary to establish solidity in your interactions with them and with others. The image you need to build must be fashioned according to solid principles, not the shifting, provisional, artificial standards too common in contemporary society!
