Monday Lent 1

‭“By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God…”

Matthew 5:17 MSG

Opening up! Now, there’s a challenge.  I imagine opening up to others could present quite a challenge for many.  It’s not every day you find someone present enough to deeply hear what you long to share.

I’m guilty of being so busy or caught up with my own stuff that I am unable to listen wholeheartedly to others. This happens most often with my husband and children.  Life at home, especially with littles, can be so full and vibrant that there is almost no downtime to regroup. And every time I open up to someone, it seems like complaints and whining.

This is a sure sign that I am in need of a holy listener. Someone who is not going to judge my whine and complaints but who listens to what I’m saying and to what I’m not saying.  One who listens to God and myself at the same time.

In my willingness to open up to another who will listen with the eyes and ears of their heart, I am also more willing to open to God. And when I open to God, I become someone who others, my family in particular, can open up to.

This way of holy listening is a beautiful thing. Words will never fully explain the experience of being heard and seen by another, but mostly being heard and seen by God.