Life Lesson: Learn to Listen to Others

It’s getting close to “crunch time” in my life! The editorial process for my book is about over and the marketing push will be revving up pretty soon. The release date for Heaven’s Currency: Investing in the Things That Matter Most will be late February or early March 2022. Next week I will be able to give you a peek at the beautiful cover for the book. In the meanwhile, please be thinking about friends and family members who could benefit from the paperback or ebook.

The central issue of life is not money or popularity but how we live in our relationships with God, ourselves, and others. Following is a snippet from the book where I am addressing ways we show our love for someone we care about. Listening is an important part of loving someone.

” I have spent a good part of my professional life listening to people talk about their concerns. On the surface, it would seem that listening is an easy thing to do. However, I have discovered that deep listening is some of the most challenging and exhausting work I have ever done. I think you will agree with me about that if you have ever taken listening to someone else really seriously. Listening is vital to healthy relationships and is a skill every follower of Christ should seek to develop.

Communication is an essential component of all our significant relationships. I would dare say that most failed marriages share a common thread of a lack of understanding and trust, which are built only when two people work hard at communicating well. Listening is a crucial part of communication. All our important relationships suffer when we fail at listening well.

To love another person well, we must accept and understand them. Deep relationships are not the product of wishful thinking or magic. Neither are they produced by judging and trying to “fix” the other person. Those you are trying to love will be inclined to be vulnerable with you about personal concerns, anxieties, and dreams if they know they can trust you. How can you help them trust you with their feelings and concerns? Listen without judging or trying to fix them or the issue.

You may think you are listening when you are only hearing. There is a big difference between the two. You must be able to hear to listen, but listening and hearing are not the same. Hearing depends on the physical ability to discern sounds. Listening is attempting to understand the meaning of the sounds the other person is making.”