KneEmail - a devotional by Mike Benson associated with Forthright Magazine
Listen
I WANT TO write about the great and powerful thing that listening is...
And how we forget it. And how we don't listen to our children, or those we love. And least of all -- which is so important too -- to those we do not love. But we should. Because listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force... This is the reason: When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand. Ideas actually begin to grow within us and come to life... Who are the people, for example, to whom you go for advice? Not to the hard, practical one's who can tell you exactly what to do, but to the listeners; that is, the kindest, least censorious, least bossy people you know. It is because by pouring out your problem to them you then know what to do about it yourself... So try listening. Listen to your wife, your children, your friends; to those who love you and those who don't; to those who bore you; to your enemies. It will work a small miracle -- and perhaps a great one. (Brenda Ueland)
KneEmail: "So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath" ( James 1:19).