I don’t make resolutions. I found out long ago that making a resolution was an exercise in futility that generally ended up frustrating me because I couldn’t carry it out. Lose weight? Good idea…but didn’t happen. Sleep more by going to bed earlier and sleeping later. Great idea…again, didn’t happen. So, after years of promising myself that I would do better, I changed my resolution to a focus word. I have been doing that for the last five or so years now. My focus word for 2024 was “trust.” I have always had difficulty trusting people after my father disappointed me so much, so I also had problems trusting God. I didn’t (and sometimes still don’t) want to relinquish control. Having “trust” as my focus word made me more mindful of when I was holding too tightly to the reins and not trusting God to be in loving control.

This year’s word is “listen.” I thought I was listening to others and to God, but I have discovered through self-reflection that I was treating God just like I do people. I was always thinking about the next thing I would say instead of listening with complete attention to what He was saying. So, for this year, I want to try to work on my active listening skills, with people and with God.

Honestly, I made excuses for my behavior, telling myself that at my age, if I didn’t say my thoughts, chances are I would forget them. God has been dealing with me about trusting Him to help me remember what I want to say and, in the meantime, to actually listen. You’re probably saying to yourself that listening isn’t hard and shouldn’t require practice. But ask yourself how many times you listen so attentively that you can paraphrase what the person said and respond to it appropriately. How many times do you “zone out” or interrupt? For me, it isn’t easy to listen attentively and actively, so that is why it’s my focus word.

I found this graphic online to help me to remember what active listening looks like.

The big one for me is DO NOT TALK! God will be speaking to me through His Word and I want to express my opinions to Him. That shouldn’t be happening. I can talk to God when He is done talking to me, and not one minute before. Can you imagine Jesus interrupting the Father and telling Him just what He thought about the whole crucifixion thing? I am pretty sure that Jesus spent a lot of time listening to the Father because He consistently quoted the Scriptures in His teaching.

My point is simple. I wish for you all to have a happy, safe and healthy new year. Of course, I want that for me, too. But I also want to learn to be a better listener, someone with empathy and compassion, not someone who comes across as just too busy to take time to listen. And I want to hear what the Father is saying because He is the One with all of the wisdom, so I am thinking that listening to Him may improve my ability to apply wisdom to the circumstances of my life. At the very least, I want to be more aware of when I am actively listening and try to improve my stats on that skill.

Finally, from Scriptures I have found about listening: