The Quiet Onez

Hearing and Doing the Word

¹⁹ Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; ²⁰ for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. ²¹ Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

James 1:19-21

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As a parent, I’ve come to witness the sinfulness of mankind through the simple life of my young 8 month old daughter.

It sounds strange to say, but the reality of it is, we see the rage and anger we’re naturally born into because we can’t get what we want.

Maybe we easily excuse it, because, she’s a child. But how much have adults truly grown out of the rage and anger when things don’t go our way?

The other day I was furious over the fact that my computer was slow. I cussed my computer out, literally not helping the matter a single bit.

The most common moments of my anger stem from having blow ups with my wife. Growing up, everyone had to defend themselves. My step-dad was constantly defending himself from the spites of anger from my mother. Since I hid a lot from my parents, I had to defend myself from my parents’ accusations.

All of these conversations were never productive. It was a mixture of intense emotions up until we decided we were tired of talking about it and let it be.

Anger filled my household seemingly a third of the time. No one ever wanted to listen to each other. And that kind of mentality was brought into my marriage.

When I “defend” myself against my wife, I don’t fight back lightly. I’m often times immediately angered because I want to ensure fairness. Yet often times, trying to “explain” myself will leave out what she’s really trying to tell me.

My lack of listening because I’m so focused on myself hurts her.

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What is Christianity?

Have you ever felt “heard” in your life? I think one of the best feelings in the world is to feel heard.

The people I love speaking with and being around are the ones who can listen well. When we listen and allow others to be heard, we have productive conversations and make close connections.

When we pray to God, He hears us. He speaks to us in ways we need to learn to listen from. Whether that be through another person or an event, or through His word. We, in turn, need to learn to listen.

This is the kind of God we have. A God who listens to us because He knows we want to be heard. When we’re heard, it’s our turn to listen, and that’s when God works.