Good Quote: Ministry of Listening

Seven Principles for Eradicating Selfish Ambition in the Fellowship:

3. The Ministry of Listening

The first service that one owes to others in the
fellowship consists in listening to them. Just as love to God
begins with listening to His Word, so the beginning of love
for the brethren is learning to listen to them... Listening
can be a greater service than speaking... One who cannot
listen long and patiently will presently be talking beside the
point and be never really speaking to others. Anyone who
thinks his time is too valuable to spend keeping quiet will
eventually have no time for God and his brother, but only for
himself and for his own follies...

We should listen with the ears of God that we may speak
the Word of God.

... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Life Together [1954]