I once had a friend who responded to almost everything said to him with a one word reply \u2013 \u201cUnderstood!\u201d It was his way of assuring the talker that he had listened and processed what was said. I sometimes wondered if he really understood or if he was just in the habit of giving that response. Then I came across a quote from Stephen Covey, \u201cMost people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.\u201d Ouch! As one who has made a living by speaking (preaching\/teaching\/advising\/consulting\/etc.), I plead guilty. In fact I have lately caught myself replying with what I thought was a better story, a stronger point, a funnier joke. Many years ago, I memorized a verse that I need to refresh in my thought process. \u201cLet every man be swift to hear, slow to speak\u201d (James 1:19). It was Epictetus, an ancient Greek sage and Stoic philosopher who said, \u201cWe have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.\u201d Understood!<\/p>\n
Join me this week in praying for the following global concerns:
\n\u2022 Pray for Lori as the people of Mali held elections yesterday with a potential run-off on December 15th. As a precaution, the U.S, Embassy requested all Americans to remain inside on those days.
\n\u2022 The Winter Games in Sochi, Russia will be held Feb. 7-23. Pray that the volunteers from Russia encounter Christian volunteers in a divine moment that will last for eternity! A prayer guide for each of the major areas can be accessed at www.EngageSochi.org\/prayer.
\n\u2022 Continue to pray for disaster relief in the Philippines and especially the missionaries that are involved in it.
\n\u2022 Pray for Vancouver church planters John & Tiffany as she was hospitalized overnight this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I once had a friend who responded to almost everything said to him with a one word reply \u2013 \u201cUnderstood!\u201d It was his way of assuring the talker that he had listened and processed what was said. I sometimes wondered if he really understood or if he was just in the habit of giving that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monday-morning-manna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1378\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}