Craig T. Owens

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We rob ourselves and diminish the other person with whom we’re conversing if we aren’t fully listening. Listen, listen, and (really!) listen some more before you share your opinion.

Solomon said, “He who states his case first seems right, until his rival comes and cross-examines him” (Proverbs 18:17 AMPC).

And I like this thought from John Maxwell:

     “The best way to understand people is to listen. The best way to learn from others is to listen. The best way to receive people’s best contribution is to listen. The best way to learn what others need from you is to listen. The best way to gain people’s buy-in is to listen.” —from John Maxwell’s book High Road Leadership 

I shared several quotes on this topic in the posts Leaders Listen and How to be Wise with your Mouth and Ears. 

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P.S. After posting this, I came across an article on the Desiring God website called Listen Well to Love Well. She wrote, “Listening is hard work. While our ears automatically welcome sound waves and ship them to our brains, it doesn’t mean we always hear other people. We might even wonder if listening well is worth the effort. … We have a long history with listening that makes it essential to who we are yet difficult to get right. Sarah Clarkson writes, ‘We are by nature a listening people. If we were spoken into being by the Word of God, then at our core we are to be listeners, and to attend to the word that spoke us into life.’”