
So have you ever hear a 20 month old little girl say "Blue Shirt"? It's amazing what one can hear coming out of the mouth of a child just learning to speak! Anyway, this got me thinking about how well people
listen to one another. I mean are we out there in relationships truly
listening or just
hearing a bunch of noise- a bunch of "bull sh**t"? You see that's what I heard my daughter say when she was actually saying "blue shirt"!
I think there are many times that we are only hearing the noises around us instead of actually listening to what

people are trying to say or what might actually be happening, and/or what life is trying to tell us. What do you think it will take for us to not only hear but
listen?
Its like when I was a kid playing in the streets of NYC. I'd be out playing stick-ball or skateboarding down the streets in my neighborhood and I would hear my mom call and tell me to watch out for the cars. Somehow, what she said seemed to quickly enter one ear and escape out the other. My mom would then normally follow up with a couple statements which would elicit a small conversation between the two of us which normally went something like this; "Timmy, did you hear me? I told you to watch out for the cars in the street." "Sure mom." "Tim, are you listening?!"
You see, my mom realized that I heard her,
but she wanted to know if I was listening. The word
listen in English comes from the Latin word
audire. From audire we not only get the verb to listen but also words like audio. However, the root meaning of
audire means to obey. Therefore, when we are truly
listening we are
obeying! I

think my mom understood this in her instinctive motherly "statements!" Because, honestly, if I listened to my mom, I would obey what she was saying.
What would this mean in all our relationships or better yet, in our lives? I think just possibly it might be that we would
be present in every moment possible. This just might be a life of obedience- that is
being obedient to
being present with people and
loving them at all costs! Maybe this is what Christ called us too as well? When we
listen to Christ tell us that - people will know that "we are his disciples by how well we love one another", and that we are to "love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength [and] to love our neighbor as ourself" . . . Maybe living like this is a natural result of listening- it's obedience of both the heart, mind, and body, just possibly?!

Well, I guess this all brings me back to what my daughter said the other day. I may have been hearing her say "bull sh**t", but if I was listening, I'm sure I would have actually heard, "blue shirt"! Can we be a people, a body of believers who listen and hear "blue shirt"?!
BTW, my daughter was holding my blue shirt, so maybe some of us need a "visual aid" in helping us hear- or that could just be me?!

Peace
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