Talk
Less, Listen More
by
Scott Stoner
One
who spares words is knowledgeable. —Proverbs 17:27
I regularly
listen to the soundtrack from Hamilton: An American Musical. There is a line in
the second song on the album, “Aaron Burr, sir,” that relates to our focus on
listening.
In this song, we
hear an anxious Alexander Hamilton meeting Aaron Burr for the first time. He is
talking incessantly as he tries to get Burr’s attention. At one point in the
song, after Burr has heard more than enough, he turns to Hamilton and says,
“Let me offer you some free advice. Talk less, smile more.”
For our purposes, I would like to rephrase it slightly.
“Let me offer you some free advice. Talk less, listen more.” Like Hamilton, I
know I am especially vulnerable to talking too much when I feel anxious or
insecure. As I have grown older, I have learned to become more comfortable with
making room for silence in interactions with others, and not anxiously filling
natural lulls in the conversation.
In her Ash Wednesday reflection, Lisa Saunders candidly
shared how one year she gave up yelling at her children for Lent. Sometimes
learning to talk less is not just about the number of words we speak, but also
about the choice and tone of the words we use. Lisa expressed this when she
wrote that she realized how the way she spoke impacted the way others felt. My
prayer is that paying close attention to how we speak and how we listen will be
an enriching Lenten discipline for us all.
Making
It Personal:
Do you tend to talk at times more than you listen?
What are you aware of at this point that can help you to
“talk less, listen more”?
In your prayer life, do you tend to spend more time
talking than listening?
Living
Well Through Lent 2021
Copyright
©2021 Scott Stoner.
All
rights reserved
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