In my Inbox Today

Your mind is like a reporter, only the most biased reporter is more objective than your mind.

Your mind colors everything. As an example, when you listen to the presidential pre-election news in the U.S., when you are a staunch Republican, you listen one way, and when you are a staunch Democrat, you listen another way. Whom you are for makes a phenomenal difference to how you think. If you are for one or the other, you don't even want to hear what the other side has to say.

If you are pro-gun laws or anti-gun laws, you just want to hear your side promulgated. You really don't care to hear the other side, as if there were only two sides in the first place. When someone opposed to your view is talking, you will disgruntledly turn the TV to another channel.

So much for objectivity. You might as well confess that you don't have it.

Now, I am not saying that you must have objectivity. No, I don't say that at all. What I do say is that you must admit, if only to yourself, that you come loaded with bias. Your mind is most often made up before you begin. Is that not true?

In the larger issues, no one really cares too much what you think. They want your approval and your vote, but, otherwise, you don't matter to them. How would they care? They don't even know you.

But those you live with and those you work with and those you are friends with, they really do care what you are feeling and thinking. When there is an issue with those close to you, will you consider putting your biases aside and listening for a while, letting the other person have a say while you listen? For the sake of both of your hearts, you've got to.

Truly, it is not that you must agree. It's just that you must listen because all hearts need to be listened to, at the least, to be heard. Better yet, to be understood. Oh, what a wave of relief there is when someone understands what you have been trying to say! When people listen to you, they help you to know what you mean. They give a great service.

When you do not or will not give your attention to what others are saying to you, you cut off their hearts. You know the feeling of having your heart cut off. You don't like it.

It does not cost you anything to hear what someone else is feeling. It doesn't cost you anything to listen, to care enough to listen, and to listen without interruption. Will you do that? No longer cut off hearts? Will you let people say what they have in their hearts and minds to say? You know, of course, whatever the issue and how important it may have seemed, it may have been a big to-do about nothing. You may even find that, when you listen, you are both saying the exact same thing!

And now, will you give an extra few minutes to let the people who care about you reveal their hearts to you? And will you let people know you hear what they are saying and that you respect them enough to listen, really listen?