How good are you at listening, and I mean real proper listening? A recent Facebook post had a statement to the effect that we listen to reply, not learn, and that started a really good discussion about listening.
My comment was that if a conversation is interrupted, how many people return to that conversation? In my experience, not many because the other person (usually) was not really listening. I must admit that while listening to another person, I am already thinking of my reply, but after so many poor experiences, I now make sure I listen and reply appropriately.
I decided to check out Bible verses about God's desire to hear us, and there were quite a few pages ( in a book - I still use books) of Bible references to the word 'hear', 'heard' 'listen' - too many to list here, but one which I really liked was from Psalm 34:4 "I sought the Lord and he answered me". I am sure that is the testimony of every Christian as God does hear us when we chat with him, even when we may not see the outcome of that conversation. By faith we believe that God hears and answers our prayers.
I remember meeting a very social lady twice and during that first brief conversation, she asked about my children. The next time we met, she immediately asked a relevant question about my children as she had remembered our first conversation, and this from a lady who mixes with a lot of people. Obviously I was impressed and it showed me the importance of really listening.
And that reminds me of Jesus' words "If you know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!" Jesus makes it quite clear that God hears our prayers - he listens.
In a recent TV program, one sentence really made me think. The person being interviewed said of someone else ' she was the first person who had really listened to me'. How sad is that!
Listening can take many forms and being aware of the other person's body language, for example, can tell us much about that person, even before a conversation is commenced. Jesus reacted in many different ways to the people he met, because he listened to not only what they said, but how or why they said it.
Proper listening is not always easy but it is something Jesus did and something which we should do too.
God gave us one mouth and two ears - I wonder why?
My comment was that if a conversation is interrupted, how many people return to that conversation? In my experience, not many because the other person (usually) was not really listening. I must admit that while listening to another person, I am already thinking of my reply, but after so many poor experiences, I now make sure I listen and reply appropriately.
I decided to check out Bible verses about God's desire to hear us, and there were quite a few pages ( in a book - I still use books) of Bible references to the word 'hear', 'heard' 'listen' - too many to list here, but one which I really liked was from Psalm 34:4 "I sought the Lord and he answered me". I am sure that is the testimony of every Christian as God does hear us when we chat with him, even when we may not see the outcome of that conversation. By faith we believe that God hears and answers our prayers.
I remember meeting a very social lady twice and during that first brief conversation, she asked about my children. The next time we met, she immediately asked a relevant question about my children as she had remembered our first conversation, and this from a lady who mixes with a lot of people. Obviously I was impressed and it showed me the importance of really listening.
And that reminds me of Jesus' words "If you know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!" Jesus makes it quite clear that God hears our prayers - he listens.
In a recent TV program, one sentence really made me think. The person being interviewed said of someone else ' she was the first person who had really listened to me'. How sad is that!
Listening can take many forms and being aware of the other person's body language, for example, can tell us much about that person, even before a conversation is commenced. Jesus reacted in many different ways to the people he met, because he listened to not only what they said, but how or why they said it.
Proper listening is not always easy but it is something Jesus did and something which we should do too.
God gave us one mouth and two ears - I wonder why?
RSS Feed
