happyemk

//Okay, let’s get right at it. Why is it so hard to get people to listen to you? For the same reason you don’t like to do it. Listening is an act of surrender--you surrender the agenda to the speaker. You lose control of the conversation. The speaker will probably start telling you what to do (God forbid). You probably know everything the person is going to say (blah, blah, blah; yada, yada, yada). Listening seems weak. Except that it’s good. And godly. And smart. “He who answers before listening--that is his folly and his shame” (Proverbs 18:13). You can’t learn when you’re talking. Listening shows respect to someone else. Listening first helps you avoid revealing that you don’t know what you’re talking about. Listening first gives you time to organize and focus your thoughts, so that when it is your turn, your words will have greater impact. Practicing listening to other people is also excellent training to help you listen better to God.//

Walt Disney knew that children wished animals could talk. And so he gave them a talking mouse, duck, and dog, plus an entire chatty menagerie. Even after seven decades of Disney, however, animals still don’t talk. People alone can do that.  God talks. It was his marvelous decision to share that ability with his children. But with that ability comes serious responsibility. When your mother was comforting you about playground bullies, she encouraged you to shrug off mean words, since “names will never hurt me.” Nice try, Mom, but you know that’s not true.  Words have enormous power. In fact, “The tongue has the power of life and death” (Proverbs 18:21). Words can crush the life and hope out of a person. Words can help a broken heart start beating again. Words are God’s chosen vehicle for sharing the good news of our Savior Jesus Christ.  We could all stand a tongue overhaul in God’s shop. Listen first. "Death and life are in the power of the tongue,and those who lo...