A Word of Encouragement from Elizabeth Rice Handford
Recently a friend whom I hadn’t seen for a while dropped by to see me. Her heart
seemed full, and so I mostly drank coffee and listened as she talked of many different things. But as she talked, it seemed as if she’d read just the headlines and put her own interpretation on them, without reading the articles. She decided who was guilty, who was innocent, why a new idea hadn’t worked, just from reading the headlines. Her interpretations seemed not to be based on facts, but on her strong prejudices. Sometimes I knew the full story and knew she was wrong, but they were incidental matters and not worth arguing about.
But then she touched on a matter dear to my heart, and stated some “facts” I had never heard before. I asked, (and I hope without incredulity in my voice), “I haven’t heard that before. Tell me where you got that information.”
She jumped up, slammed her hand down on the table, and grabbed her purse. “I came here to talk,” she said furiously. “I didn’t come here to be asked questions.” And she left in great anger.
Abashed, I watched her drive away.
A Scripture God had seared into my own heart came to mind. I was studying with my Sunday School class of women from the book of James. (Remember, I was the pastor’s wife; I was supposed to be a shining example of what a godly wife and mother ought to be!) I was reading James 1:19 aloud to the class when I seemed to feel the Lord tapping me on the shoulder. “Libby, pay attention! You need to hear this. You think, when you are mad and disciplining your children, that you are ‘righteously indignant.’ But really you are just plain angry, and that’s not ever going to do the the godly work in your children’s hearts you want done.” I was stunned.
Dear friends, be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Your anger can never make things right in God’s sight.
James 1:19,20 (NLT)
This “being quick to listen” seems to imply that not only am I listening to what God is saying, but that I am committed to obeying what I have heard. Sometimes, I admit, I can hardly wait for someone to finish their sentence so I can say what I want to say. That isn’t listening. That’s being “quick to speak.” It’s caused by pride, and it will not do anything in people’s hearts to honor the Lord Jesus.
First Peter 5:5 says,
“All of you be submissive to one another,
And be clothed with humility,
For “God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.”
Oh, dear Lord, help me always to listen, to be teachable. Please don’t turn your face against me because I am proud. Please let my listening with all my heart control the words I say, to your honor and glory.