Yesterday there was a huge debate over whether or not you heard “Yanny” or “Laurel” as an audio clip of a word was played.
For a few minutes three Smiths sat in great debate over who heard what word.
Clearly Scott and Layne heard it one-way while I heard it another.
As we bantered back and forth, something became clear.
Over 20 years of living together as mother/daughter and 24 years of marriage we’ve sometimes struggled to communicate effectively because we say and hear things very differently.
What a great lesson we can take into our relationships.
The way we hear things AND the way we communicate has great impact on our actions and behaviors.
There is a Chinese proverb, “Trouble comes from the mouth.”
How much better could our relationships be if we become very intentional about:
· What we say
· How we say it
· Making sure the listener hears what we intend to be heard and there is not a communication breakdown
Far too often when we communicate with others we are doing so out of our own “STUFF” without stopping to think about how it may be received. It’s also important to remember that as those hear what we are saying, they bring their own suppositions to the conversation. Therefore, there is always room for misunderstanding when communicating in relationships.
In a society where everything is done quickly and vastly in print/text rather than verbal, auditory communication, how much better could our relationships be if we took time to think through how we communicate with one another?
What if we make sure that which is “heard” is what was intended?
Colossians 4:6
Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.