Do you remember Charlie Brownıs teacher on the Peanuts cartoons? While they never actually showed her, she was best known for what she said. She may have been trying to communicate something, but ³Wah-wah-WAH-wah² is all that was ever heard. Have you ever tried to talk to someone and felt like they werenıt really listening to what you had to say?
On the other hand, we have all been guilty of being poor listeners at one time or another, usually due to one of two reasons
· We were hearing, but we werenıt listening. Maybe we were concentrating on something else. We failed to show that person that we cared by genuinely listening to what he or she had to say.
· We started talking before the other person had a chance to finish what he or she was saying.
As you go through the rest of this week, concentrate on listening to what people say. Show that you are doing more than just hearing by looking them in the eyes, responding when they ask a question, and maybe even writing down appropriate information. When we listen like we should, we often are able to understand a lot more about the people around us, and it can save us a lot of heartache down the road!
Application:
Is listening something that you need to work on?
Pray that God would help you to put effort behind what you hear and make you a great listener!