Sometime back in the spring I mentioned that I'd been made aware of how often I interrupt. At the time I made a conscious effort to curb that nasty habit. Well, lately I've noticed it's bad again. And if I'm annoying myself, then I must be driving everyone else up. the. wall.
As I was reading my Bible this morning there were two verses that stuck out to me. Here they are.
Proverbs 18:2, 13 A fool finds no pleasure in understanding but delights in airing his own opinions. He who answers before listening - that is his folly and his shame.
I'm pretty much a shameful fool. My prayer included two things this morning. First, I want to really listen, not just let someone else talk while I think about what I want to say next. Second, that I would truly seek to understand what others are saying, even if I don't agree with them.
When the kids are interrupting I ask them if what they are going to say is an emergency. If so, then speak. If not, then wait. I'm such a hypocrite! I suppose I should mentally ask myself the same question when I start to interrupt other people.
I'll leave you with part of one more verse that the ones in Proverbs reminded me of.
James 1:19 Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak.
Funny how the listening part is mentioned first. As people say, that's why God gave us two ears and only one mouth.
Off to apologize to my family for all the interrupting I've been doing and have them hold me accountable. I'm going to spend the next week paying a quarter to each person I interrupt, each time I do it. That should raise my awareness of my interrupting and motivate the fam to help me stop.
5 comments:
Are you being too hard on yourself?
At a quarter a pop, you can interrupt me all day long.
I don't think I'm being too hard on myself. I just interrupt far to often and need to stop. :)
What a great idea! I struggle w/that too...
How about the next time we're home you bump it up to a dollar a pop!!I'm gonna make me some CASH!!
Actually, you should come to the Philippines, it's not considered rude here!
One time we asked one of our language helpers what she has noticed that's different about Americans. She said, 'Well, I used to work for this American couple, and one time, they had me stay for lunch with them and about 5 other Americans, and I noticed that everyone would wait until one person was done talking before the next person would start. It was so weird and not fun.'
:)
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