o Just One More Thing o This Won’t Take Long o Before I Finish… o And Another Thing… o I Promise I’m Almost Done o I’ll Stop Now o Okay, I’m Done o Really, I’m Done o This Is the Last Thing o Let Me Just Finish Any of those sound familiar? That is exactly the speaking habit I want to address. I once prepared a talk for church that meant a great deal to me. I had prayed about it, thought deeply about what I wanted to say, and included some very personal

Benjamin Franklin once said, “I made it a rule to forbear all direct contradiction to the sentiments of others. I even forbade myself the use of every word or expression in the language that imported a fixed opinion, such as certainly, undoubtedly, etc. And I adopted instead of them, I conceive, I apprehend, I imagine, or it appears to me.” “When another asserted something that I thought an error, I denied myself the pleasure of contradicting him abruptly, and of showing im