The Listening Husband
The Listening Husband
The intelligent person restrains his words, and one who keeps a cool head is a man of understanding. (Prov. 17:27)
Multitasking Mania
The personal electronic device revolution has taken multitasking to a new low: we speak on the phone while checking e-mails; we attend meetings while typing on a BlackBerry; we chat with our coworkers while scanning scores on the Net. In so doing, we confuse busyness with productivity, juggling with accomplishment, and one-eighth of two as greater than one. Rarely are our minds fully focused.
Can the eyes focus on two things at once? Despite our high-distraction culture, that isn’t how human vision works. We need both eyes focused on the same object in order to have depth perception. Can the mind focus well on two things at once? Consider drivers chatting on cell phones, conductors texting on trains, or pilots doing anything else while flying a plane. Foolish calamity and avoidable blunders occur when we divide our attention.
Bringing It Home
The folly of multitasking involves more than listening to our wives while looking at the computer or TV. It also applies to conflict resolution. While striving for peace, we tend to juggle our adamant desire to be heard with our responsibility to listen. But listening, which can be halfhearted at best, is often drowned out by our own words and anger. We interrupt to be heard, then plug our ears because we’re mad. Not smart. Not godly. We need to just listen.
Bottom Line
Listening is critical to conflict resolution and requires our full attention. So let’s single-task listen by restraining our words and keeping our cool.