ARE YOU LISTENING?
Are you a good listener like the famous RCA Dog above (adapted from Francis Barraud's 1898 painting)? Are you too listening for your "Master's voice?"
Listen to what Pr 18:13 says about listening. Here are 3 translations:
The one who gives an answer before he listens– that is his folly and his shame. -- NET
If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame. -- ESV
What a shame, what folly, to give advice before listening to the facts! - NLT
A few thoughts on Proverbs 18:13 and the lost art of listening -
As Howard Hendricks says, “Marriage is sometimes the dialogue of the deaf.”
The Harvard Business Review says 65 percent of an executive’s time should be spent listening.
So much more so in our most intimate relationships.
When I’m thinking about an answer while others are talking—I’m not listening.
“He who answers before listening—that is his folly and his shame” (Proverbs 18:13).
A wise old owl sat in an oak,
The more he heard, the less he spoke;
The less he spoke, the more he heard;
Why aren’t we all like that wise old bird?
ILLUSTRATION: To illustrate the high cost of poor listening, Diana Bonet, listening consultant and author of The Business of Listening, offers this example: A $100,000 error was caused by a dispatcher who routed a fleet of drivers to deliver building materials to the wrong state. The dispatcher heard the city (Portland), but quit listening before he heard the state (Maine). The result: eight trucks, 3,000 miles away in Portland, Oregon.
I cried, and from His holy hill
He bowed a listening ear;
I called my Father, and my God,
And He subdued my fear.
—Isaac Watts
Proverbs 18:13 A Way Of Loving
In her book Listening To Others (Hearing their Hearts), Joyce Huggett relates her experiences of listening so that we can respond with wisdom those who are suffering or in difficult situations. She says they often raved about all she had done for them. "On many occasions," she writes, "I had not 'done' anything. I had 'just listened.' I quickly came to the conclusion that 'just listening' was indeed an effective way of helping others."
This was the help that Job's wordy, preachy friends failed to give him. While it is true that they sat with him for 7 days in silence, “for they saw that his grief was very great” (Job 2:13), they didn’t listen when Job started talking. He complained that they were "miserable comforters" (Job 16:2) and was so distraught that he even accused God of not listening. He cried out, "Oh, that I had one to hear me!" (Job 31:35).
Listening says, “What matters to you matters to me.” Sometimes people do want advice. But often they just want to be listened to by someone who loves and cares about them.
What does active listening accomplish?
Listening is a way of loving others.
It says, "I want to understand and know you."
It comforts the brokenhearted, builds relationships, and encourages faith in God.
Listening is also a means of learning the facts.
Solomon, in Proverbs 18:13, warned that it is folly to answer a matter before hearing it.
Most of all, listening to others should reflect our attentiveness toward God and His Word. God has so much He wants to teach us and tell us.
Listening is hard work, and it takes time. It takes time to listen long enough to hear the other person’s true heart, so that if we do speak, we speak with gentle wisdom. Oh, Lord, give us a loving heart and a listening ear. Amen
As you take a moment of stillness today and give Him a listening ear, you'll be better able to listen to the hurting people around you.
A caring heart, a listening ear,
A thoughtful word, a loving tear
Will help to lift the heavy load
Of hurting people on life's road.
--DJD
You can win more friends with your ears than with your mouth.
Eloquent silence often is better than eloquent speech
Sounds of Silence - The lips of the righteous nourish many. Proverbs 10:21
A fishing buddy of mine observed, “Shallow streams make the most noise,” a delightful turn on the old adage, “Still waters run deep.” He meant, of course, that people who make the most noise tend to have little of substance to say.
The flip side of that problem is that we don’t listen well either. I’m reminded of the line in the old Simon and Garfunkel song “Sounds of Silence” about folks hearing without listening. Oh, they hear the words, but they fail to silence their own thoughts and truly listen. It would be good if we all learned to be silent and still.
There is “a time to be silent and a time to speak” (Eccl. 3:7). Good silence is a listening silence, a humble silence. It leads to right hearing, right understanding, and right speaking. “The purposes of a person’s heart are deep waters,” the proverb says, “but one who has insight draws them out” (Prov. 20:5). It takes a lot of hard listening to get all the way to the bottom.
And while we listen to others, we should also be listening to God and hearing what He has to say. I think of Jesus, scribbling with His finger in the dust while the Pharisees railed on the woman caught in adultery (see John 8:1-11). What was He doing? May I suggest that He could have been simply listening for His Father’s voice and asking, “What shall we say to this crowd and this dear woman?” His response is still being heard around the world. By David H. Roper
Father, today may Your Spirit remind us to seek the quiet so that we may listen first to Your voice and then understand the hearts of others. Teach us when to speak and when to be quiet.
Well-timed silence can be more eloquent than words.
www.preceptaustin.org
Are you a good listener like the famous RCA Dog above (adapted from Francis Barraud's 1898 painting)? Are you too listening for your "Master's voice?"
Listen to what Pr 18:13 says about listening. Here are 3 translations:
The one who gives an answer before he listens– that is his folly and his shame. -- NET
If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame. -- ESV
What a shame, what folly, to give advice before listening to the facts! - NLT
A few thoughts on Proverbs 18:13 and the lost art of listening -
As Howard Hendricks says, “Marriage is sometimes the dialogue of the deaf.”
The Harvard Business Review says 65 percent of an executive’s time should be spent listening.
So much more so in our most intimate relationships.
When I’m thinking about an answer while others are talking—I’m not listening.
“He who answers before listening—that is his folly and his shame” (Proverbs 18:13).
A wise old owl sat in an oak,
The more he heard, the less he spoke;
The less he spoke, the more he heard;
Why aren’t we all like that wise old bird?
ILLUSTRATION: To illustrate the high cost of poor listening, Diana Bonet, listening consultant and author of The Business of Listening, offers this example: A $100,000 error was caused by a dispatcher who routed a fleet of drivers to deliver building materials to the wrong state. The dispatcher heard the city (Portland), but quit listening before he heard the state (Maine). The result: eight trucks, 3,000 miles away in Portland, Oregon.
I cried, and from His holy hill
He bowed a listening ear;
I called my Father, and my God,
And He subdued my fear.
—Isaac Watts
Proverbs 18:13 A Way Of Loving
In her book Listening To Others (Hearing their Hearts), Joyce Huggett relates her experiences of listening so that we can respond with wisdom those who are suffering or in difficult situations. She says they often raved about all she had done for them. "On many occasions," she writes, "I had not 'done' anything. I had 'just listened.' I quickly came to the conclusion that 'just listening' was indeed an effective way of helping others."
This was the help that Job's wordy, preachy friends failed to give him. While it is true that they sat with him for 7 days in silence, “for they saw that his grief was very great” (Job 2:13), they didn’t listen when Job started talking. He complained that they were "miserable comforters" (Job 16:2) and was so distraught that he even accused God of not listening. He cried out, "Oh, that I had one to hear me!" (Job 31:35).
Listening says, “What matters to you matters to me.” Sometimes people do want advice. But often they just want to be listened to by someone who loves and cares about them.
What does active listening accomplish?
Listening is a way of loving others.
It says, "I want to understand and know you."
It comforts the brokenhearted, builds relationships, and encourages faith in God.
Listening is also a means of learning the facts.
Solomon, in Proverbs 18:13, warned that it is folly to answer a matter before hearing it.
Most of all, listening to others should reflect our attentiveness toward God and His Word. God has so much He wants to teach us and tell us.
Listening is hard work, and it takes time. It takes time to listen long enough to hear the other person’s true heart, so that if we do speak, we speak with gentle wisdom. Oh, Lord, give us a loving heart and a listening ear. Amen
As you take a moment of stillness today and give Him a listening ear, you'll be better able to listen to the hurting people around you.
A caring heart, a listening ear,
A thoughtful word, a loving tear
Will help to lift the heavy load
Of hurting people on life's road.
--DJD
You can win more friends with your ears than with your mouth.
Eloquent silence often is better than eloquent speech
Sounds of Silence - The lips of the righteous nourish many. Proverbs 10:21
A fishing buddy of mine observed, “Shallow streams make the most noise,” a delightful turn on the old adage, “Still waters run deep.” He meant, of course, that people who make the most noise tend to have little of substance to say.
The flip side of that problem is that we don’t listen well either. I’m reminded of the line in the old Simon and Garfunkel song “Sounds of Silence” about folks hearing without listening. Oh, they hear the words, but they fail to silence their own thoughts and truly listen. It would be good if we all learned to be silent and still.
There is “a time to be silent and a time to speak” (Eccl. 3:7). Good silence is a listening silence, a humble silence. It leads to right hearing, right understanding, and right speaking. “The purposes of a person’s heart are deep waters,” the proverb says, “but one who has insight draws them out” (Prov. 20:5). It takes a lot of hard listening to get all the way to the bottom.
And while we listen to others, we should also be listening to God and hearing what He has to say. I think of Jesus, scribbling with His finger in the dust while the Pharisees railed on the woman caught in adultery (see John 8:1-11). What was He doing? May I suggest that He could have been simply listening for His Father’s voice and asking, “What shall we say to this crowd and this dear woman?” His response is still being heard around the world. By David H. Roper
Father, today may Your Spirit remind us to seek the quiet so that we may listen first to Your voice and then understand the hearts of others. Teach us when to speak and when to be quiet.
Well-timed silence can be more eloquent than words.
