Story time:
It’s a Monday night just like every other during the last five months. I go to open gym at church to build into the kids even if we’re just eating cupcakes and sitting on the bleachers. I come home and say to my mom, “I don’t understand why I’m there if I’m just going to sit there and talk to one adult every. single. week.“ Now would probably be a good time to mention that I work for the church and one of my responsibilities is to be there Monday nights.
Weeks go by, I continue to go, I continue to talk, I continue to eat cupcakes.
I am getting closer to my Race which means that my time is winding down quickly at both jobs. I come home from open gym two weeks ago, look at my dad and say, “God may have wanted me to be at open gym every week just so she could have someone to talk to.”
Story time #2:
I’m at the dentist today and the entire office knows I’m going on the Race. I am scheduling my next appointment with the receptionist and she asked about my trip. After I told her my normal little paragraph that I tell every that includes the answers to the basic questions, she starts to tell me about her recent vacation and how she lost her purse in a cab in Cozumel during a cruise.
After talking to her today, I thought to myself, you never know who wants to talk.
Throughout the day today, I kept going back to the conversation I had with the receptionist this morning. Why did she feel like I was a good person to share her story with? Yes I’m going to a bunch of different places next year, but was that really it?
As I finished baking cookies tonight, it hit me – well the Spirit hit me. So many people just need someone to talk to. We all have a story to tell and we don’t always have the people to tell it to. How often are we truly willing to listen?
How many times in life do we just listen to people so that we can give an answer rather than listening because we are having a conversation with a real, live person that was created in the image of God.
Wanna know how many times I’ve heard the phrase that people love to hear themselves speak lately? More times than I can count. If people love to hear themselves speak, then why aren’t we willing to listen?
I’m an extrovert, I love to talk. It is so stinking hard for me to stop talking and truly listen to people. When I was at church in the first story, I would become impatient when I didn’t get to say everything I wanted to. You know what’s wrong with that? The sweet woman from church wanted to talk to someone and I wasn’t always willing to fully listen because I wanted to get words out instead. Did I need to get words out? Nope, not at all.
So take some time friends to listen more than you speak. You will learn so many things – from the people around you and the God who loves you.
