- Do not send e-mails whilst angry.
- Pray. If you utter unto the Lord thy God “and then they gon’ have the nerve to…”, you are not ready to type. While you are free to say that to Christ because 🎤 He can HANdle ET! 🎼 you are not free to write it. Pray until such phrases are withheld from your petition to Him, then you are in the right frame of mind to talk to others.
- Type your concerns – and this part is paramount – leaving the “To” line blank – then go to bed.
- Reread it the next day, after what was hopefully a good night’s rest (also referred to as the cooling-off period.) Remove all the “first of all”s and “What you NOT gon’ do”s and “So let me get this straight”s. Generally, remove any word typed in all caps because ideally you have calmed down at this juncture and have determined that yelling is not necessary.
- Then, without giving them any history, have a trusted friend who is not afraid to dress you down or maybe even a law enforcement officer read your communiqué. If after reading your note without a briefing, they ask you, “Whoa, fam, what did they do, slap ya kid?!”, then begin again at step 2 – you’re not ready. If they believe it is simply a random text written to communicate your point, and they ask, “OK, why am I reading this?”, continue to step 6.
- Use every word you need, and none of the words you do not need (I got that from my husband’s genius brain. If you have ever read anything he has written, you are keenly aware that Dude is nice on the keyboard.)
- Include facts; exclude feelings. Emotions are best communicated in person where they are less likely to be misinterpreted.
- Have Officer Sharon reread your un-angry e-mail again. If it meets her approval, pray over it, the receiver, and you, and if you have a peace about it the circumstances that deemed the letter necessary still exist, by all means, hit ‘Send’.
- If this post brought to mind someone who needs this exact kind of advice (you know they need it!), share this with them with this emoji 😳 and then this one 👀 and do not type “lol” after it. Just let the conviction hang out there, and possibly prepare yourself for a strongly worded e-mail from them. 😏
Join the Conversation
Leave a comment
Cheri Washington 
10. Change every “in spite of” to “despite” and mention elephants in a sermon.
LikeLike
Huh? The elephants part I kinda get???
LikeLike
Pastor Brandon shared all of his frequent edits in the sermon on Sunday about how to cut down on word count, changing “in spite of” to “despite” One word vs 3. And of course, he preached about something really important, but told me not to think about elephants. So, naturally, all I remember is elephants.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Girl! 😆 You had me rereading this thing. Too funny.
LikeLike
😂
LikeLike