ROOTED IN LOVEâ—½ HOME
On Wednesday nights, I teach the preschool and kindergarten kids at church. We eat dinner together, go to worship, do a Bible lesson, make crafts, and play. There’s usually quite a bit of chaos involved, and also a lot of noise. Truthfully, though, I always leave with a smile on my face. My favorite part is just loving on the kids and all the funny things they have to say.
The main thing that’s stood out to me about the kids over the course of the year is that they just want someone to listen to them. Plain and simple, they want to be heard.
While we’re eating, I’m bombarded with mouths full of food jabbering at 90 miles a minute, telling me all sorts of random details about what happened during their day. They raise their hands a hundred times in the middle of the Bible lesson, eager to tell me something their mom told them last Tuesday or what their big sister ate for lunch. The entire evening is filled with stories and questions and hilarious little comments that seem to come out of nowhere.
I can feel my heart strings being tugged every time they tell me some random detail or funny story or silly fact. I know they just want me to listen to them. They want my undivided attention (usually all at once so I feel like my head’s on a swivel trying to listen to them all). They want to know that someone hears them and actually cares about what they have to say. It doesn’t matter if what they’re talking about is nonsensical. They want to feel important. So I do my best to listen and show them that I value what they have to say.
Because I’ve also come to realize that it’s not only kids who desire to be heard. We all feel that way, don’t we? We don’t just speak for no reason. We want someone to listen and pay attention to what we say. It’s only natural to want to be heard.
But for some reason, it’s not always natural to listen. We’ve got too much going on in our minds. We are busy thinking about what we’re going to say next. Or maybe we’re just tired and distracted. Whatever it may be, listening comes a lot less easily than talking.
It doesn’t have to, though. We can actively choose to truly listen to others. Listening is a simple way of showing that we care about someone. It’s an action that demonstrates our willingness to sacrifice our time for them. When we stop talking long enough to actively listen, it shows people that we love them.
And you know what else I’ve learned from my gaggle of kids at church? You don’t necessarily even have to say anything back. Just listening is usually enough. It costs nothing, but it’s a huge gift. One that everyone deserves to receive.