Listening THEN Thinking THEN Speaking...

Last night at youth group We finished our study on relationships (which I don't think my sister listened to at all judging by her behavior to my brother this morning) and then we played a game called "the salad bowl game". In this game everyone writes down a name of a person, place or object and puts it in the bowl. Then, two teams are made up and the timer is set for 30 seconds or whatever it was. The bowl goes to the first person on the first team and they pick a paper from the bowl. Then they have to describe what is on their paper for their team Once the team guesses it the paper is kept and the bowl is passed on. Once the timer goes, the bowl goes to the other team and the game goes on until all the papers are finished. The teams add their papers, write down the score and all the pieces go back into the bowl for the second round. This time, you have to describe the paper in one word and "um" counts as a word. You finish that round, get the points, and then the bowl goes again the third time, this time no words just actions. So it was really fun and loud and my mind was kind of preoccupied so I wasn't listening very well. We are in the second round and the other team picked a paper that had the name of the pastor, so his hint was "minister". I didn't hear that but his team did and they all started shouting the answer and then I heard "mini-skirt" so I, having the big mouth God gave me, yelled "mini-skirt is two words!!!" and they all looked at me and started laughing and said "minister isn't." cue blush.
Everyone says "think before you speak". good advice. For me, I definitely need to Listen before I think and then speak. Perhaps I could be a little less awkward that way :P On the plus side, it's cheap entertainment for my friends.
I texted my friend that story, in about 100 less words, last night and he texted back with "A klutz and bad with words... I have no idea why you're a good server"
It made my night, because I was thinking the same thing.
I wouldn't be surprised if it's all pity tips :)