Speak less, hear more

Yesterday I learned another important lesson. It is really important to hear other people.
I thought that I am quite a man of listening. I tried to listen to other people's feelings and answer accordingly. But no, I am still failed on this matter. More often than not, I try to defend my opinion rather than listening to what other people really think and confirm their feelings.

Thank God, He allowed me to see my error and fix it before it comes too late. As I was speaking with one of my friends, we went into an argument, and especially because I am tired, I responded rather cynically. Then he began to talk about other things that doesn't really related to the problem at hand, but used them to defend himself. (Well maybe not, maybe it's just me that view them as something unrelated, I'm not sure because I can only view from my perspective.) As I am running out of patience, I began to respond harsher and harsher. Then he began to say what he think and would do. At first, I wanted to respond, "So what do you want me to do? You expect me to do that?" but suddenly, God warned me not to do that. So instead, I then just responded with a simple "Ok. Anything else?" and to my wonder, he responded, "Nothing, just that." And then the heat went down from there.

I then realized that people are just simply want to be heard more. We often just want our opinions to be confirmed and accepted. Even if the other party doesn't agree with our opinions, it is okay as long as they hear and know about them.

Learning to hear without answering back is quite a hard task for me to master, but I know that God want me to do that.

Let's do our best to speak less and hear more! Be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger! (James 1:19)