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Thursday, February 5, 2009
"...to seek to understand rather than to be understood..."The title for this post is taken from a prayer attributed to St. Francis
- it is the one that begins "Lord, make me an instrument of your peace." I have been pondering the portion
I used for the title of this post, where Francis asks God to help him focus on understanding others rather than
being understood himself. There is great wisdom, I believe, in that request.
How often do
we seek to get our point across, sometimes even at the expense of listening to someone else? Recently I was part
of a teleconference meeting. It's a meeting on a phone line in which several people participate.
There were times in the course of our conversation when several people, me included, were trying to make a point.
We ended up talking over one another at times. When this happened, we all did something, pretty much
at the same time, without anyone asking us to - we all became quiet. When that happened, we proceeded, one
at a time, and all could hear and were heard.
What would our conversations, disagreements, meetings,
workplaces, and even conversations with loved ones look like if we all got quiet first - focused on really listening? There
is an old proverb I've heard quoted, "Much silence makes a powerful noise."
Lord,
help us to focus on understanding rather than on being understood. Amen!
Thu, February 5, 2009 | link
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