Day 7 of Being Deliberate: Listening

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.

 

 

One thought on “Day 7 of Being Deliberate: Listening”

  1. 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! 😀

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