AOD Life Principles

About a week ago I met up with my youth pastor in order to discuss some biblical doctrines and our believes about certain parts of the Bible. We each have beliefs that are different than the others and so we sat down to discuss and seek to find the truth in each of our beliefs and come to some common ground. This is a great example of creative conflict, as we were confronting each other so we could both grow more in our understanding. My youth pastor is intensely interested in spreading what he knows to other people who have not heard it while I would rather grow other christians in their knowledge and help them to know God in a deeper way. It's the beauty of diversity in many ways I suppose. Another AOD concept that I had to practise, with much difficulty I might add, was active listening. Although he would state many things that I would immediately disagree with and want to tell him why I thought they were wrong, I had to continue to search for the meaning in what he was saying while encouraging him to continue and not showing a posture of wanting to speak. I really don't think I did a very good job at this since I am very passionate about what I believe and it is often difficult for me to accept any other view, something I should probably work on.