Loving Through Listening预览

### Why Does Listening Well Matter? If loving each other is as important and significant to God as Jesus says in Matthew 22:37-39, the question that comes to mind is what are ways to love each other well? One of the ways Jesus loves us and invites us to love is through listening. The practice of listening well is loving, honoring, and healing. What if listening is not merely the act of hearing the words spoken? What if listening is the practice/art of understanding the meaning behind the words? Listening is being attuned to a person’s heart and experience – joining them in their story, weeping as they weep, sharing their joy, and everything in between. One of the most remarkable skills anyone can ever practice, listening is creating environments in which the other person feels heard, understood, known, cared for...loved. We each have a story to be told that is worthy of good, wise, and kind engagement. Your story matters, and is worthy of being heard, held, and engaged well, with kindness and attunement. Attunement is about understanding another’s inner emotional world. The window into another’s emotional world is their non-verbal communication – that is, their facial expressions, tone of voice, and body language. Telling our stories to someone who listens with compassion and empathy contributes to redeeming painful, fragmented experiences and developing new, healthy, and whole stories – regardless of what a person has experienced. When we tell our stories, including the fullness of brokenness and blessing, pain and joy – to a caring person, it leads to a kind and empathic understanding of others AND ourselves, interrupting entrenched, unhealthy, harmful patterns. How kind of God to bring healing and integration to his beloved this way! As we listen, we have the opportunity to offer a safe and welcoming space for one who is struggling, stuck, hurting, and who is courageous enough to share her/his story. We get to come alongside her, listen well as she shares, and invite Jesus to meet her here in this time and in this space. This is a sacred space. Holy ground. This is the invitation of listening: we have the opportunity to partner with Trinity: Abba Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit for the hearts of others – to offer care and compassion in ways that may bring integration and healing! God’s loving presence within us — in and through your presence — is how the Kingdom comes here on earth. This is the place where Love rises in you and through you. May it be so! As you ponder all this with God today, ask Him: Father, how have I experienced this to be true for me? How have I experienced being listened to and attuned to? How am I meant to love and be loved through listening well and showing honor and care for others? Jesus, how might it feel if my story is held and engaged well? Please give me a glimpse of this. Spirit, how are you with and in my every breath, every thought and hope and care? How are you aware and attuned to my heart and my story?