LISTENING WITH YOUR EYES

The other day I was ‘partially’ listening to Focus on the Family, and they were discussing the challenges of everyday life as busy, working mothers. One lady told how one day her son was trying to tell her something, and finally he said “Mummy you are not listening to me.” …sounds familiar…it does to me. She said “of course I am listening.”  to which he replied “You are not listening with your eyes!“

Is anyone else in the guilty chair with me? How many times in this hectic life that we live, do we listen with ears only? No eyes, no mind, no soul. In other words, we are hearing but not really listening. Life is moving so fast we just brush the conversation aside and move on to the next thing. OR we are already formulating our response in our heads whilst the person is talking, so we don’t really hear ALL they have to say.

If you have a social, talkative son like mine, you may be very, very guilty of this. My darling boy likes to talk from morning to night, even sometimes after you’ve said “Goodnight” there is always an extra sentence or query that appears out of left wing ..that just NEEDS to be added 🙂  (You just gotta love him). But many times our minds are sooo consumed with personal duties, household chores, finances, studies, whatever, that we don’t really listen. HOW WRONG IS THAT! People, even kids, have way of discerning when we are disengaged, just as the little boy did. They can tell when we are only listening with our ears!

Very often something that seems trivial and repetitive to us, may be extremely important to the speaker, and they need our undivided attention, support and love…and we miss the moment in the chaos of life! I wonder how many people who finally took their own lives, tried to tell someone something…but they were just too busy or disengaged to see their cry for help. Sobering thought!

Sadly, we also often even listen to God with our ears only, but not our souls and spirits. He is trying to tell us something life changing, and we hurriedly brush it aside. We are just too busy, even to listen to God! We even gloss over His Word (trying to fulfil our daily reading plan…hmmmm), but not absorbing its truth. 

God knew this…. that why He said:

Anyone who listens to the Word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

HE WANTS US TO PAY ATTENTION AND FOLLOW THROUGH!

So I am preaching to myself this morning, and for all those who felt a ‘tinge’ of conviction while reading. Let’s try to reduce the chaos in our lives, let’s try to stop doing a million things at once sometimes (I know its hard!) so we can really LISTEN to our kids and those around us in need, who really want us to LISTEN WITH OUR EYES!

Doing my best with you, Coach D