Swift to Hear

Often I write a quote or scripture on our kitchen chalkboard.

This one currently holds the record for the longest ever kept.

I’m pretty sure the kids are ready for a new one.

I’m not.

Here’s why.

I’m hopeful that every time this scripture is read...

(I can feel my mind wandering off for a moment.)

...a sudden miraculous change will sweep over each child, causing such a mighty change of heart that they will NEVER feel wrath again.

Snap out of it!

Okay, I’m back.

What I really hope is that each child will, in some way, value what they’ve read. And if not now, maybe the words will settle into some little holding zone deep in their brains and surface someday when they need them.

“Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.” —James 1:19

When I first read this scripture, it had great value to me, so I’ve been trying to apply it.

I’ve been listening more and speaking less.

It has changed things.

I’ve also started noticing how often we humans do just the opposite. We’re swift to speak and slow to hear. A little spiritual dyslexia, perhaps?

Sometimes we’re so anxious to tell our own story that we don’t really hear the one being told to us.

And apparently, the kids are beginning to notice too.

One of my sons was recently riding in a car with another couple. He overheard the husband say to his wife, “Man, my back is really hurting today.”

His wife responded by telling him about all the things that were hurting her.

My son was surprised that she never really acknowledged what her husband had said. Instead, she immediately brought herself into the conversation.

(No judgment here. I’m quite certain I’ve done the same thing plenty of times.)

But the fact that he noticed made me smile.

Then there was dinner.

Bree started telling me about her day when one of her brothers interrupted and began telling me about his.

Bree quietly let him finish.

She seems to have mastered the swift to hear part.

Another brother at the table, however, immediately called him out:

“Hey, why’d you have to bring yourself into the conversation? Dude, you just cut her off.”

Between you and me, those two brothers may still be working on the slow to wrath portion of the scripture.

But there it was.

They were noticing.

One little scripture, written in chalk in our kitchen, had somehow found its way into our conversations.

I think maybe it can come off the board now.

It appears to be sinking in.