Suffolk Coastal July Meeting – Tania Bright
Suffolk Coastal Filling Station were privileged to share the evening with Tania Bright. Tania is
is focussed on community renewal through relationships, reform and innovation, lending her professional acumen and 14 years ministerial experience to a variety of high impact organisations such as Love146 (Board); Chapel Street (Group Director); For Refugees (Executive Director) and Spring Harvest (Member of the Board). She is a keynote speaker and seminar contributor at Spring Harvest, New Wine, Premier Radio, Premier Woman to Woman, CGI churches, Elim Regional Days and Women Walking with God (Edinburgh). She also co-founded Community Home, fostering homeless teenagers in 2008.
Tania talked about relationships and commenced by looking at the relationships of the Trinity. Quoting 2 Corinthians 13 v14, she talked about the three characteristics of relationships shown in the Trinity – the Grace of Jesus Christ, the Love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit. She asked if all three were always evident in us? Focusing on Love, Tania then conducted an experiment, using 1 Corinthians 13 v4-8 (“Love is patient, love is kind …”) to measure how many of these characteristics we show to our loved ones. She pointed out how we all need the Holy Spirit to help us in this. However, she also pointed out that we all have a human brain and God has given us personality, IQ and EQ (Emotional Intelligence quotient).
Tania then examined our relationships with “difficult” people in our lives – “Mr and Mrs Sandpaper” – who rub us up the wrong way. Although we would prefer to be surrounded by people we like, who are easy to get on with, Tania pointed out the benefits of having relationships with people who are not – people who are “abrasive” to us. The reason for this is that it increases our self-awareness and makes us emotionally stronger.
Tania then pointed out the “Four Horsemen” (referring to Dr John Gottman) that summarised the major reasons for failing in relationships: Criticism, Contempt, Defensiveness and Stonewalling. She explained each of these and then challenged us to examine ourselves as to whether we are or have been guilty of one or more of these in our relationships. She then concluded her message by praying over those who admitted failing in this area.
Tania delivered her message with clarity, passion and a great sense of humour and we thank her for an excellent evening.
