Listening & Hearing

“Listening is to hearing what speaking is to talking. Hearing is the natural response of your ears to sound. Listening however, is using your ears and your mind to absorb and understand what the other person is saying…” — Nido R. Qubein

During the day we hear a lot of sounds from cars, planes, trains, squeaky doors, radio, TV, and people talking. Most of it never enters into our consciousness because we are not listening for something specific. Even when people talk to us we often are not paying attention and thus not listening to what is being said. When we do listen, we must be careful and do our best to understand what is being said, for most often we are not aware of what is truly being said, but are in fact hearing what we want based on our own preconceptions of what we think we want to hear.

Jesus said, “If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.” What was it I am supposed to hear? If someone is speaking, why wouldn’t I be hearing what was said? The truth is you may be hearing however, you may not be understanding what is being said. You may think you know what is being said, yet in reality not be hearing what is trying to be conveyed to you. So, you may hear, but you may not understand. Below is one of the clearest reasons of why this might be. It was shared with me by a pastor many years ago.

It was his belief there are 3 different and distinct versions of what is said:

1. What you said
2. What I think you said
3. What you think you said

He continued by saying there are also 3 different and distinct versions of what is heard:

1. What I heard
2. What you heard
3. What you think I heard

The truth is it takes effort to communicate properly and just as much effort to properly hear what is being conveyed. Learn to listen with the right attitude. When you do, this will help you to hear what is truly being conveyed.

Best of LUCK as you
Labor Under Correct Knowledge…

Respectfully,

Rick Cox