31 Days of Listening

I discovered recently that a lot of people do this thing in October where they write for 31 days on a topic - mostly as a challenge to themselves. They link up here, on The Nester's Blog, and become a little community. I'm peeking in on that writing community. I'm not a writer, and I don't aspire to be a significant one, but I have come to really value the process writing affords me as I journey through my faith and life. So I'm joining up with 31 Days, mostly to challenge and grow myself.

After brainstorming topics, I landed on listening. It's a theme I've been reading about, thinking about, and trying to develop in my daily life. I love to listen, but I realize that I'm actually very poor at it. Just because I lock eyes with you in conversation doesn't mean I'm truly listening to what you're saying - with your words but also with your silence, your expression and body language, your life, everything about you. Listening is such an engaging (exhausting!?) task. It takes thought, intentionality, time, effort... and surprisingly, it takes love. I want a whole lot more of that in my life.

A few of the areas I want to explore this month are:

Listening to The Word
Listening to Others
Listening to My Past
Listening to My Family
Listening to My Culture
Listening to The Holy Spirit
Listening to Myself

I chose these 7 areas because I have realized that they have so much to teach me, if only I will listen.

I'm praying that God would speak His Truth into my life as I spend more time in a posture of listening in order to learn and grow. To learn more about Him, others, myself, our story, and what He wants in my life.

So... to listening.

*Cheers.*