Listen Up

Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.

James 1:19

The African elephant is the largest kind of elephant. Its ears are one-sixth the size of its body, so it has the largest ears of any animal. Can you imagine how large your ears would be if they were one-sixth of your body size? Your ears would hang from your head to your upper arm! The elephant’s large ears funnel sound into its ear canal, and one elephant can hear another elephant up to five miles away!

You spend 70 to 80 percent of your awake time communicating. Of that time, you spend about 45 percent of it listening. So how’s your listening? You probably can hear what a parent or teacher says, but how well do you actually listen?

Many people don’t have good listening skills. One reason is because we talk at a rate of about 125 words a minute, but our brains can process things at a much faster rate. So you might find yourself thinking about something different, or daydreaming, while a friend is telling you about the argument she had with her mom the other night. Or you might be thinking about how you are going to spend the afternoon while your pastor is preaching the morning sermon.

A test showed that after listening to a 10-minute oral presentation, the average person heard, understood, or remembered only about half of it. Just 48 hours later, the listeners had forgotten half of what they did hear and understand. What that means is that you may remember only 25 percent of your pastor’s sermon, your teacher’s talk about the battles of the Civil War, or the job your mom wants you to do on the weekend.

Can you see the problem with this? You might miss important information. So the next time someone is talking, focus on what he or she is saying. Listen for key points and even jot them down if you need to. And when your mind starts to wander, summarize to yourself what the person has already said.

God wants you to be swift to listen and slow to speak. He also wants you to listen to what he has to say to you. That might mean listening more carefully to your pastor or Sunday school teacher, but it might also mean reading the Bible and paying attention to what God wants to teach you.

Use your Bible concordance or Biblegateway.com to look up the words hear or listen. Jot down what the Bible verses say to you about listening.