Afterthoughts on "Can we really talk about something personal without getting personal?"

1. I wish it was a topic we could debate about in a civilized manner, but people automatically switch into attack mode and the i'm-right-you're-wrong mode and honestly, I don't want to deal with that.

2. You're not subject to anyone's opinion. If you hear, see, or read something that doesn't settle well with you, you're under no obligation to force it to anyway. You can disagree; you can think for yourself and come up with your own conclusion. 

3. What are people's real intentions? Your intentions show in the way you speak and the words you choose to use. If your intention is to bring the truth to light, to gently correct, or to clarify something, okay cool. But if your intention is to prove yourself right and the other wrong, what is the real intended goal? What would the end result be if you were proven right? Elevated pride. What are we arguing for? When arguing about truth, defending truth, I think it's important that we argue to honour truth and not to honour ourselves. And if we're speaking honestly, it's really hard to honour truth when we're caught up in defending ourselves more than truth itself. 

4. We can't avoid taking things personally. When we're shut down or proven wrong, corrected or rebuked, it's going to hit our pride hard. It's difficult to accept being wrong. Most times, especially in arguments, we can take the other's points as attacks; and vice versa, what we say can be taken the wrong way. This goes back to #3 - if we have genuinely good intentions and the other party understands those intentions, less hurting would happen. 

5. I respect the people that have been part of this whole argument, but I don't appreciate how it's being carried out/conducted. It may not be my business but I didn't intentionally walk into it myself either.

6. "God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”"