5.6.14

God gave me something to think about this week... We are taught to be kind and loving in our words and in our actions...but so often we are not taught to listen in love. So I have been thinking on this, just how do I listen in love? To learn to listen in love we have to know what love is, then apply that to our listening. The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 13:4-6  ...... 4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out..... So I believe that if we listen in love... We are patient as we listen, not waiting to say what has come to our mind...we are kind as we listen not adding our own emotions to the story.... We are not jealous of what we hear, we just listen.... We do not want to interrupt with our own boa stings...we are not rude and interrupt the person we are listening to.... The way we don't demand our moment to talk. The way we listen without being irritable is by giving the speaker the total benefit of the doubt, choosing to believe the good in what they say and not turn it into something bad.... We listen in love when we don not rejoice when someone is telling us that they have been wronged... Another words we listen without letting our minds run away with our own thoughts  or our own agenda, we listen without looking for our next chance to talk...we listen with our hearts on the other person.  Listening in love takes effort and practice and patience. It may be the most important thing we do in our lives for another person. I must make an honest attempt, asking for God's grace to make me strong, and listen in love to those around me.