The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

James 1:19-20, “This you know, my beloved brethren.

But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger;

20 for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.”

One of the major aspects of the course I’m now teaching is “listening.”

If we are going to understand what a person intends when he speaks,

we must listen, and listen carefully. A mountain of problems develop

when we misunderstand what was said; and that misunderstanding

most often comes because we do not listen. When we then speak,

we speak about what we thought was meant. Then, the original

speaker insists he did not mean what we thought, and we feel obliged

to defend what we said about what we thought he meant. That leads

to anger. How is the righteousness of God obtained through anger?

Simply stated, it is not. Such things as this occur in the home, in

the church, in the public arena, in the Congress, in the courts –and

on and on and on. It might be good to ask the speaker to clarify his

original comments, so we might know clearly what he meant. That’s

another aspect of “hearing.” It saves time and a lot of grief.

Did you read carefully what I wrote? Do you have a question about

what James intends or why he wrote it? No? Good. There will be

no argument then, and the righteousness of the LORD will be obtained.

Love and prayers,

Nana & Dado III

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

Springdale, Arkansas