Scriptures to help us be better listeners

I sincerely admire the handful of people I personally know, who ‘listen with their eyes!’ Way too often, I’m guilty of preparing my response in my head while whoever I’m talking with is sharing from their heart.

James 1:19 says, “Understand this, my beloved brothers and sisters. Let everyone be quick to hear [be a careful, thoughtful listener], slow to speak [a speaker of carefully chosen words} and slow to anger.”

Proverbs 18:13 says, “He who answers before he hears [the facts]—It is folly and shame to him.”

Proverbs 2:2 says, “Making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding.”

Proverbs 18:2 says, “A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.”

Romans 10:17 says, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”

1 Thessalonians 2:13 says, “And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.”

James 1:22 says, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”

If you’re at all like me, I need to constantly work on being a much better listener. Not only when friends or family are trying to communicate with me … but also when the Lord is speaking to me through His Spirit as well as through His word!