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I pray that you are well and enjoying the many blessings of knowing our Lord, Jesus Christ.  I recently met with several other men in the congregation who are preparing to be mentors.  Our topic of training focused on being a good listener.  We all confessed that we have room to improve in this arena.  The curriculum reminded us that listening is loving.  I know that I still struggle at times to listen well to my family and even to congregation members who are sharing something important.  In those moments of struggle, I can be distracted by things going on around me, distracted by my phone, the TV, by a thought or story that I would like to share in reference to what I just heard, etc.!  Listening well is a loving act that displays to the speaker that what they have to say is important. 

                James, the brother of Jesus and leader of the first Church in Jerusalem said, “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this:  Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.”  James 1:19-20 NIV Today’s training encouraged us to not only listen for the content of the message, but also for the feelings expressed by the speaker fueling the message.  You know, pumping the brakes on our desire to open our mouths and reactively speak, may just be the thing that is needed to grow in our ability to listen.  It also may be the skill to not let anger be expressed and cause damage.  I guess that there are many positive benefits to becoming a good listener.

                I also wanted to encourage you that God is a good listener.  Psalm 34:15 states, “The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry.”  Jeremiah writes “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.”  Jer. 29:12 If you desire to become a good listener, maybe you will also develop your ability to listen to our Heavenly Father in prayer saying, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”

Thank you for reading and listening!