Chip Bailey

There is something missing from our crucial conversations today.

Today’s society has it backwards, and all too often, our conversations become one-sided, stilted and destructive. Everyone wants to be heard, speak first and often, rant and rave, and cast verbal denunciation without even taking the time to come off their mountain.

But we’re better than that! Here are a few tips to turn your crucial conversation into a civil discourse.

Snapshots within snapshots, stories within stories and seasons within seasons abound. Each event is spectacular in its own right, but beginning in January and running through today, it’s indisputable we are living in an extraordinary age.

Don’t get left behind!

Here is the truth: You must take care of yourself before you can help others. Amid chaos and confusion, don’t forget yourself. Address your own situation and heart before you reach out to the world. Right now, the world is wound up tighter than a rubber band, and you need to be at your best.

Life should be a conversation, life should be an experience, a participation and an ongoing series of growing encounters, not merely an acquaintance or association. We need to get back to the basics of relationships, good, old-fashioned conversation and genuine interest.

Pilots have a checklist before takeoff. Cars are constructed on an assembly line that follows a process. Great chefs use a tedious and meticulous process to cook their best dishes. Otherwise, we might all be in trouble!

Why should you and I be different?

Do you have too many voices shouting at you? And, the craziness and the voices — both in number and decibel levels — are increasing!

It’s time to take action! For your sanity and your well-being.

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. ~Proverbs 4:23 America is broken. America is hurting. America needs

The founders of the country and those who lived through the Civil War or Great Depression may disagree, but America has never been