Special Speaker

Often our minister at church asks other people to come in and share a message. I am for this, but also against this. I am for it because I love to have the opinion of new speakers and hear a NEW message. I'm against it in that we pay our minister more than my husband and I make in a year and he gets out of preaching a lot. I mean if there are 52 weeks in a year he should at least attempt to preach at a mojority of services. The speaker today was a from out west in California. It wasn't a message just a jumble of statements and musings from this pastor. One of the best bits of his teaching was in a little insert in the bulletin.

"Situational Listening" or as I changed it to "Spiritual Listening"- 4 ways to practice listening in small increments:
1. Do not interupt. This gives the other person the feeling that what they are saying is not important.
2. You DO NOT need the last word. There is no reason to feel the need to ONE-Up others.
3. Silence the mind. Not every thing someone says needs a reply. Stop trying to think of witty combacks.
4. Do NOT give your opinion unless asked. Sometimes people just need to say what's on their minds. Instead PRAY for the other person to make the right choice on their own.

For those of you who know me quite well, I am forever interupting when others are speaking. It's a habit that is a hold over from childhood. To this day when my family gets together we all talk, very loudly, all at once. Very little actual listening goes on. Its frustrating, but normal to us. My husband HATES it. When I had my surgery in January I became quite a listener. However, a few weeks later I'm back to my old tricks of interupting. Shame on me :(