Listen Without Interrupting
Proverbs 18:1,2 Some people like to do things their own way, and they get upset when people give them advice. Fools don’t want to learn from others. They only want to tell their own ideas.
Have you ever been with a group of people where one person clearly stands out as the smartest one in the room? So you have to ask yourself, how did they become the smartest person in the room?
To be sure, some people are naturally smart. Great. But a good many naturally intelligent people can be really quite arrogant. You know the sort … and it doesn’t take long for us to come to the conclusion that no matter how smart they are, actually they’re fools. Why is that? Well, here it is:
Proverbs 18:1,2 Some people like to do things their own way, and they get upset when people give them advice. Fools don’t want to learn from others. They only want to tell their own ideas.
There it is: Those people who ultimately come across as fools are the ones who don’t listen, who don’t accept advice, who don’t want to learn from others. They’re the ones who want to talk without listening – I mean truly listen – to understand where the other person’s coming from and what they’re really saying.
I know, because I used to be like that. I’d talk without listening. In fact, I’d only stop talking long enough to think of what I was going to say next.
Fortunately, I had a good mentor who taught me that the smartest guy in the room is the one who learns from others. And truly, it was a revelation. The stuff you learn!! Amazing.
The trick is to listen without interrupting. The trick is to realise there are different perspectives, different ways of doing things – some of them, many of them, better than anything we can dream up.
Listen. Learn from others.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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