Thursday, July 8, 2010

Bigger Picture #3: Are We Really Asking?

Saturday night we went to a friend's house for a wonderful fireworks display. Each year these friends invite everyone from church as well as several other friends with whom they work and play to come and eat and watch together.

One of the people there that night was a little girl - about three or four years old - who was very comfortable talking to just about everyone.

She approached a church friend of ours, a grandmotherly lady who was inside doing some crocheting, and asked, "Whose house is this?"

When our friend replied with the names of the homeowners (who this little girl didn't happen to know - her family had been invited by their son-in-law), the little girl had a thoughtful moment. She then replied, "No, it's Rocky's house" - after all, that was who had invited her, it only made sense to her that it belonged to him.

As my friend told this story to me Sunday morning, she also shared her "ah ha" moment - or Bigger Picture Moment as we might call it. She said, "It suddenly occured to me that we do that a lot...we ask a question when we've already decided what the answer is."

Ah ha, indeed! How right she was. How often do we ask questions only to be convinced we already know the answers? And how much better might our relationships be if when we asked, we were really asking...and ready to listen to the answer.

For more Bigger Picture Moments visit Sarah.

4 comments:

Alita said...

Thought provoking. How often do really know the answers? You are absolutely right. We should listen before we make a snap judgment.

Corinne Cunningham said...

So true... I'm ashamed to admit it, but I often do the same thing. Thank you for this moment, and for linking up!

Hyacynth said...

I'm sheepishly admitting I catch myself doing this, too. Just because I'm an adult doesn't mean I've left all my childish ways at the doorstep of adulthood.

This Heavenly Life said...

Good thought! I try hard to NOT do this, but...it happens :) I just hope I can learn to ask better questions in the future!