Better listening

Listening is a good starting point in communication. Spiritualm listening is an essential. Basic to real communication is spiritual understanding. Recently I attended a series of classes on the subject of effective speaking. I was hoping I'd lear how to project my thoughts better. What i learned was something different. I learned to listen better.

The teacher was blind. He didn't see people speaking, he heard them. He listened.

I realized I hadn't been listening -- not as well as I could. I watched people talking, heard them making sounds, but only partly got the message.

That "effective speaking class" became an "effective listening class" for me. I learned that listening is more than just hearing with the ears. Hearing, considered spiritually, is a form of understanding.

Real understanding begins with God. he is Mind, the source of all valid though. Because God is also Spirit, man -- made in God is likeness -- is spiritual and not material. God express His ideas in man and causes them to be understood. Spiritual understanding is the highest form of communication.

Christ Jesus listened effectively and demonstrated, in healing, the power of spiritual understanding. He proved that man and God are inseparable and eternal. He taught that undertanding God requires mroe than just accepting what the material senses say. To his disciples, speaking of the deeper significance of some of the "miracles" they had witnessed, he said, "Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? . . . Hoe id it that ye do not understand?" n1

n1 Mark 8:18, 21.

In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,m Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian SCience, writes: "Jeseus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and thsi correct view of man healed the sick." n2

n2 Science and Health, pp. 476-477.

Spiritual listening and seeing, in the way Jesus viewed them -- spiritual understanding -- bring healing. They always have. And they still do today.

The Bible tells of the prophet Elisha demonstrating the effectiveness of spiritual listening. When a woman whose small son had died came to him in distress, he detected spiritually the need, went to her home, and restored the child to life. n3

n3 See II Kings 4:18-37.

In more recent times too, many people have turned to God in prayer and found healing. In their extremity they have opened their hearts and minds to God, absolute Truth. Through spiritual litening they have become aware of their true identity as God's perfect likeness. They have felt the healing love of God, and known the peace of God. And their mental outlook has changed, resulting in a changed physical condition as well.

They kenw themselves better by listening better. Listening spiritually brought healing.

Jesus heard and saw spiritual reality beyond physical appearances and spoken words because he listened to absolute Truth. He recognized in each man, woman, and child the expression of God.

By listening with spiritual understanding as well as with compassion, we too can know the truth of ourselves and our fellowman. And we can help others see that truth through healing. DAILY BIBLE VERSE Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and though be found a liar. Proverbs 30:5, 6