One Key to Maturity

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I was recently thinking about our nation and how divided it is. It seems every single day there is something new that has people upset and yelling at each other. Whether it’s a speech, a viral video, a video game, a politician, it seems that everyone is screaming at each other. Everyone wants their view and their opinion to be heard.

Today I was pondering all this. I was thinking about myself and how I’m the same way. I want to yell and tell everyone my opinion and how right I am. I think if I speak eloquently enough, loud enough, often enough, or thoroughly enough that I can change the opinion of everyone who disagrees. Part of me wanting to change everyone’s views comes from a desire to use my God given leadership, but most of it comes from my own immaturity. Yes, I hate to admit it, but I’m immature sometimes. There’s times where I seek to be heard but refuse to listen. There’s times I care more about being “right” than loving others. That’s immature and I need God’s grace and help me grow and to be more mature.

There’s a million things we could talk about as it pertains to maturity, but I want to stick with just one main idea…

“Immaturity wants to be heard, before it ever listens. Maturity will listen before it ever needs to be heard.”

Here’s a couple questions we need to ask ourselves:

  1. Do you catch yourself talking more than listening?
  2. Do you regularly interrupt people?
  3. Do you half listen when others are talking, because you’re thinking of what you’re going to say next?
  4. Do you ask others questions?

James 1:19 (NLT) Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak…

What would it look like if we all practiced this verse? What would our friendships look like if we listened first? How would this change our marriages?! I want to challenge all of us to grow in maturity. Let’s listen more, talk less. Let’s seek to understand before ever trying to be understood.

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