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Listening (15 September)

Our Thought for the Week comes from Jeniya Gwendu our Moderator of Trustees who will also be speaking at our EBA Gathering on 25^th September.

Listening:

A friend of mine sent me this story:

A man came home tired from work. He sat on the sofa and put his feet up. His wife brought him a glass of water. His son gave him a sheet of paper and he read through.

English:17%

Biology:35%

Mathematics:40%

Physics:37%

Chemistry:42%

Economics:12%

Agriculture:19%

Geography:22%

Suddenly he lost his temper and started shouting at his son, What is all this? All the time you are either on the phone or watching TV, how dare you bring me such marks? How dare you? His wife said, my dear husband, please be patient and listen.

But he interjected, and asked his wife to shut up. It is your love and pampering that has spoiled him, he is no good and never serious at all. His wife said, Oh really? He continued to shout, saying that no one in our family has ever performed so badly ever! The son said “Dad I am sorry, I made you angry. I was cleaning the old cupboard and I found this. It is your old school report dated the 27th of July 1980. The man became humbled and dumbfounded.

Can you imagine the atmosphere afterwards? Calmness in the air, with a foolish grin on his face he replied, “Son you don’t know, those days food was scarce”.

The moral of the story is James 1:19 N.I.V. “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,” How often have you found yourselves in the shoes of the dad? When you hear or see something and quickly jump into conclusions without fully understanding the whole story or the other person’s point of view. It is easy to become emotionally charged in certain situations but there is a reason James urges us to be slow to anger. Because when we are emotionally charged it is hard to have a clear perspective of things. There is a reason why God gave us “two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.” ( a quote by Epictetus).This week I would like to challenge you, to ask yourselves this question before you react to something emotionally. How are your listening skills?

Photo by kyle smith on Unsplash