Cary Cavitt says in Six Attitudes That Bring out our Best, “I never learn anything when I am talking. It is only in listening that true learning can occur.” Larry King agrees, saying, “I remind myself every morning: Nothing I say this day will teach me anything. So if I’m going to learn, I must do it by listening.”
We must close our mouths and open our ears to learn. We can get into so much trouble for talking when we should have been listening. Once we have said something, it is out, and we cannot hit a delete key and have it go away. The way to keep from sinning by saying things we ought not to say is to stop and think before speaking. We can blurt out in anger something we will regret for the rest of our lives, as did Moses. He became exasperated with the children of Israel and said words that kept him from entering the Promised Land. The Psalmist tells us, “Because they provoked his (Moses’) spirit, so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips.” We need to remember Solomon’s advice, “Whoever guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from troubles.” Solomon’s father David prayed, “Set a guard over my mouth, O LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips.” Even casual conversations are important. Jesus warns, “But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it in the day of judgment.”
Saying nothing is so much better than saying the wrong thing. Dorothy Nevill advises, “The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing in the right place, but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.” Abraham Lincoln is often quoted as having said, “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.” His words echo the words of Solomon, who said, “Even a fool, when he holds his peace, is counted wise: and he that shuts his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.”
When we must speak, we want to say the right thing. How do we know what would be best to say? By listening and learning beforehand so that we choose our words carefully. We may agree with the importance of listening, but how many of us put it into practice? James tells us, “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.” Erma Bombeck once commented, “It seems rather incongruous that in a society of super sophisticated communication, we often suffer from a shortage of listeners.” We need to listen more and say less. Solomon tells us: “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven… a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.” Even nature teaches us by giving us two ears and one mouth: perhaps we ought to listen twice as much as we talk.
When we are talking, we are not learning. Why is it important to learn? What should we want to learn about? Learning can be an aimless accumulation of facts, as we read in the book of Ecclesiastes: “Of the making of books there is no end, and much learning is a weariness to the flesh.” True wisdom comes from learning about the ways of God. God is looking for people who are eager to hear His word, and the reward is eternal life in the age to come for those who hear the word of God and obey it. The prophet Isaiah tells us, “But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and that trembles at my word.” So many people pray to God but never listen to Him. God tells us through the words of Solomon that He will not hear our prayers if we fail to read our Bibles. The exact quote is: “If one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.”
James calls the tongue “a world of iniquity”. He goes on to say, “But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.” We need to make it a #1 priority in our lives to try to tame this tongue of ours. If only we would realize every morning when we wake up that, “Nothing I say this day will teach me anything. So if I’m going to learn, I must do it by listening.” Let us listen to the Lord as He speaks to us through the pages of His book, and let us listen to each other, for we never learn anything when we are doing the talking.
We sing in one of our hymns, “Oh! Give me Samuel’s ear, the open ear, O Lord, alive and quick to hear each whisper of thy word: Like him to answer at thy call, and to obey thee first of all.” May we like Samuel have our ears open and listening for the words of God so that we learn the godly wisdom that will lead to a reward of eternal life in the kingdom of our Lord.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One