Today I chose to be a listener. I’m not sure what I’d hoped to accomplish with this deliberate choice. Really, I think I just wanted to be there for my kids.
We started our early morning with a swim meet. By 10:30 we were on the road back home. You’d think a 4-hour road trip would be the perfect time for conversation. Well…
The 5th grader had a little school project to finish, so she popped in the ear buds and got to work. The boy popped in a DVD, watched about 4 minutes and promptly fell asleep! Oh well!
What did I do? I left the radio off. Really, that is such a simple thing to do. By having the radio off, I could hear the little sighs and such that Addie would make as she worked. I could ask what she was thinking, where she was stuck, what was on her mind. I treasure all these little nuggets of conversation.
I learned a major lesson from today’s deliberate choice: Listening is hard. You can decided to listen, but you can’t force anyone to talk. My job as a wife and a momma is to be ready to listen when I’m needed.
It’s funny you should post this…the book that I’m reading, Breathe, brought this same thing out last night. In the chapter entitled “mindful”, it spoke of us listening to our children. I was very convicted that I often don’t give them my undivided attention as they speak…even though I expect them to give me their undivided attention when I am speaking. Ouch, ouch, ouch! It seems to me since you are also writing about listening and it being our job to be ready to listen…well, I do believe God is trying to tell me something! 😀