Listening

"When we listen well, we listen with our hearts and our minds, our ears and our eyes.  And is there anything so wonderful as the feeling we get when we know someone "got it" when they were listening to us?"

The above quote from "How to Get a Smart Mouth" is similar to what my pastor had mentioned on Sunday, when he talked about Deborah listening to the people's problems as their judge.  The book says that "Listening is not the same as hearing", and that there are many things which can interfere with really listening (e.g. speaker is boring, we're thinking about our own opinion and what we are going to say next, "judgmental listening", "noise", etc).   So, it's important to be aware of these, because good communication actually requires being able to listen well.

I have generally been considered a good listener, and may have taken it for granted and minimized it; for, I didn't consciously recognize its true value in communication.  I can also now see clearly that there are times when I could still work on improving my listening skills.   Making this conscious link between being a good listener and being able to communicate well should be very helpful.