National Listening Day

Today is the first National Listening Day. It is intended to be an annual day after Thanksgiving tradition. I wrote my religion column for the Tribune & Georgian on this idea and how it is scriptural as well as just a good idea:

Try this new holiday tradition—stop and listen. Stop the busy-ness of Thanksgiving and Christmas long enough to listen to the family stories you have never heard.

The importance of this was brought home recently at a funeral. Once again I interviewed family and friends to prepare the sermon. Once again I heard the congregation respond in the reception afterwards, “I never knew.” So many times we miss the opportunity to connect with those close to us because we don’t ask.

We take our relationships for granted and connect at a surface level. We never ask how someone get into their career, or why they moved to their current home, or what growing up was like, or any number of questions that would allow us to connect at a deeper level.

Today is the first National Listening Day. The idea is to use the time when families are already gathered together, to pause to hear the stories we never take the time to tell. The stories of your parents, grandparents and, if still living, your great grandparents are part of what made you the person you are today. Stop long enough to ask the questions that will bring the stories forward and then listen to the events and people that shaped their lives.

The Bible gives us this advice to tell our stories. Again and again, we are told in scripture to tell the stories of God to our children and our children’s children. Deuteronomy 32:7 says, “Remember the days of long ago; think about the generations past. Ask your father and he will inform you. Inquire of your elders, and they will tell you.” The day of listening is a time to do just that.

The full text of the column is online here: Story Listening for the Holidays.

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Pastor