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Monday grace

Feb17

Listen.

Listen well.

Listen more and talk less. 

As a piano teacher, I encouraging good listening skills. Listen to the music. Listen to the intervals, the dynamics, the rests, the expression of the musician. We learn to play more proficiently by learning to listen, by quieting ourselves to receive the beauty of the sounds.

Our personalities define our listening and talking bents. Some of us are comfortable talking little while others have lots of words to share.

God made us all unique, like flowers of the field, to express His creativity in immeasurable ways. We are all different, and we communicate distinctly.

Perhaps there is something to be learned by listening more and talking a bit less.

James 1:19 says: My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,

This is very plain, a command not a suggestion, verified by other translations. Listen without unnecessary delay. Be prompt to listen.  Act swiftly to listen.

How much confusion and conflict could be avoided if we listened better? It takes focus and concentration to listen without preparing a response, a counter, or an argument.

Steven Covey said, “Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” When I’m thinking about what to say next, waiting for a pause in the conversation so I can jump in, I dare say I miss something vital. I might miss the inflection of the voice that conveys more than the words. I could miss the expression of the face, the light of the eyes into the soul that will help me truly understand the heart of the matter. The heart of the person.

I do a lot of talking to God throughout my day. I pray quick prayers, longer petitions, telling Him what I want. But how well do I listen to Him?

Scripture tells me over and again to be still. Like a child comforted by his mother, resting quietly upon her breast, wrapped in loving arms, this is to be my posture with my Father.

Quieting my soul and my mouth opens my ears to hear the gentle voice of the Savior. 

We have two ears and one mouth, and therein lies a clue to our communication. Listen twice and talk once. What we hear may be stunningly beautiful.

Listen well.

Monday grace

Conversations

Oct4

I heard voices this week.

Actually I talked to my grandchildren on Sunday and thanked God for unlimited long distance.

I remember when Sweet William and I were dating.  He lived in Louisville and I in Shepherdsville.  It cost long distance phone rates for him to call me.   So those calls were few and limited.  We usually had 5 or 10 minutes to say all the things on our minds and hearts.  It wasn’t nearly long enough.

So to be able to call and talk for over an hour on the phone was a bit of heavenly bliss.  Bill and I got on each extension of our home land line.  We asked each of the children about their days, their rooms, their school work, the church they visited and their neighborhood.  We got to hear about the neighbors, the parks close by, and friends who live a few blocks away.  We heard about their daddy’s work and how amazing it is. 

We finished each conversation by sending air kisses across the lines.  I almost felt hugged.

Then our sweet daughter-in-love got on the phone.  We chatted about their new home, her yard sale finds, the decorating, the front porch she loves, the comfy coffee nook near the kitchen.  I heard contentment in her voice.  She is with her man and her children, and right now that is enough. 

I hung up the phone and felt filled up on the inside.  Oh there is still a deep longing, a loneliness in knowing they are so far away.  But I have heard their voices and experienced their emotions and laughed with them.

In our technological era where new gadgets appear on the market faster than I can learn the old ones, we are quickly becoming a messaging community.  Email and texting are replacing voice to voice communication. 

I appreciate the benefit of quick unencumbered messages that get to the point and are sent faster than a speeding bullet.  For work related issues, I love email.  It is efficient, and I like efficient.

But for the loves of my life I still prefer conversation, face to face and voice to voice.  Nothing takes the place of that.

Communication is God-designed and recorded in the very first chapters of God’s wonderful story.  He talked to the humans He had formed.  He called for them when they hid themselves from Him.  And I wonder how God felt when that happened, when those  he lovingly made and to whom He had given all the earth didn’t want to be near Him or hear His voice.

I find it interesting that the cravings we have for relationships were created by our Creator.  He understands our longings because He put them there.  I contemplate how man was made in the image of God and that we are relational because God is relational.

He desires communication with me just like I desire communication with those I love.  Face to face, voice to voice.  His Word to my heart.  My prayers to His.  Nothing else takes the place of that.