Second
Day in Lent
Thursday,
February 18, 2021
Barriers
to Listening
by
Scott Stoner
Listening is essential for the development
of intimacy, trust, healing, and wisdom. —Lisa Saunders
When
you ask a young child to do something they don’t much feel like doing, such as
picking up their toys or getting ready for bed, there is a reaction they
commonly have that is simultaneously amusing and a bit off-putting. They cover
their ears to keep from listening to what is being said to them. The logic is
if they can’t hear, they won’t have to do what is being asked of them.
While I don’t do anything quite so obvious as putting my
hands over my ears when someone is talking to me, I certainly can do other
things that interfere with my being a good listener. I can, for example,
interrupt a person speaking to me. I can pretend to be listening when, in fact,
my mind is somewhere else. I can also multitask when someone is talking to me,
which clearly says I am not giving them my full attention. Our focus for this
Lent daily devotional is listening.
As we begin this journey, I invite each of us to become
aware of things we do, intentionally or not, that limit our ability to listen
well. As Lisa Saunders wrote yesterday, “Ash Wednesday is the start to a season
inviting us to set aside or stop whatever gets in the way of our listening
well.”
Making
It Personal: What gets in the way of your ability to
listen well to others? Can you think of a time recently when you did not give
your full attention to someone? If so, what can you learn from that experience?
Living
Well Through Lent 2021
Copyright
©2021 Scott Stoner. All rights reserved.
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