To listen to someone, without any of my own thoughts is tough.  I am grateful for the work that God has done in me, and continues in me, to slow me down and guard my mouth.  I am a fixer.  If someone has a problem, I want to help them fix it.  Whilst there is a place for that, I know it is more important to just listen! To just hear them. We all want to feel heard and loved, we all want to receive this; are we willing to give it?

If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame. Proverbs 18:13

What a blessing when someone trusts me enough to share their burden with me; to be able to listen to their grief, their fears, their worries. Each time this happens, and I am now able to really (try) listen, I find God healing my heart too. Because in that quiet listening, when I am really hearing them, sometimes I am able to hear my own grief, fears, and even victories, reflected right back at me. Other times, I am able to see how God has already healed grief, fear or worry. The sweetest times, when I sit with someone, listening, and knowing right there and then, that God placed us together, for that sweet God infused moment.

I think the balance of the ‘just listening’ and ‘loving input’, will always take God’s wisdom. Let’s not forget to listen to Him. I so often get this wrong, and I am quick to speak, I am thankful for a patient God who is working in me.

Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips! Psalm 141:3

Let us never forget the importance of listening, the importance of community, the importance of sharing our burdens.

Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing. 1 Thessalonians 5:11