Are You Listening

Clinton and Ohlschlager, in their book, Competent Christian Counseling, share six (6) ways that listening is done poorly:

1. Inadequate listening.  Becoming easily distracted.  Tuning out!
2. Evaluative or judgmental listening.  Instead of JUST listening, sometimes we listen to tear apart or to constantly evaluate.
3. Filtered listening.  Picking out ONLY what we want to hear and not focusing on the WHOLE story or explanation.
4. Rehearsing instead of listening.  I do it all the time.  Just ask Anna.  Thinking about your response before the one sharing is done with their message.
5. Sympathetic listening.  This is projecting your concern beyond what is needed.  Becoming emotionally responsive the is “over the top.”
6. Interrupting.  Stopping someone before they are done.

Our society does a horrible job at listening.  May it not be true of us who call ourselves followers of Christ.

“He who has ears, let him hear.”  Matthew 11.15