“When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new.” ~ Dalai Lama
Listening is an art. It is something that is often underutilized. When we take the time to listen, we can learn so much about others and about ourselves. The Dalai Lama hits the nail squarely on the head. If we talk, we are only repeating what we already know.
What if what we are repeating is not the truth? It might be something we think we know but we may have the wrong information. Repeating it, then, is nothing more than gossiping. If we take the time to listen, we might learn all the facts and we might learn something new to boot.
Too many people don’t want to listen. They want to move on quickly and, let’s face it, listening takes time. Shouldn’t we take the time to listen, though, so that we have things as accurate as possible? Moving on without listening can be reckless at best and dangerous to ourselves at worst. If we don’t listen to people warning us about things, we can injure ourselves gravely.
Listening is also important in our prayer lives. Too often, our prayer is one-sided. We tell God what we want, we ask for all sorts of things, we tell God what is wrong, et cetera. That’s it, though. We tell. We often don’t give God a chance to speak.
Maybe it is because we don’t believe God can or will speak to us. Well, guess what? God does speak to us. Quite often. More often than we would consider. However, if we are too busy talking, we will not hear Him speaking.
Listen. That should be our mantra today. Listen to what others have to say to you today. Listen to cautions sent your way. Listen for God’s voice in all that you do. Keep a keen ear open so that you may listen and learn.
FAITH ACTION: Spend some time in silent prayer today so that you may listen to what God might want to say to you.