Let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger. James 1:19 
- Why does James exhort people to “be quick” to listen? How could you listen more quickly?
- Having given instruction to listen, why does James say to be “slow” to speak? Isn’t he repeating himself?
- What does anger have to do with speaking and listening?
- When was the last time you regretted speaking before you listened? Why?
Living On Tilt 
I had an incident over the weekend. I wrote something on my fb page in response to a comment a friend had made. She has shared some personal things with me that she is keeping close to her chest, so when I inadvertently made a reference to some of this, she got angry and panicky and was phoning and sending messages for me to remove the message. Fortunately, I did not pick up on the phone and when I played back her message I caught the tone. It also came out in her written messages. I quietly removed the offending post and just kept away from her. I chose to do that because I listened and have taken a very long time to answer. I feel that if I had responded at the time, while I may have wanted to be calm, her agitation may have spilled over to me and make the situation explosive.
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How perfectly God orchestrated this situation to give you the opportunity to delay your response. I think you are right about the importance of the passage of time. It is hard for me to slow down and take time before responding. I will try to remember your experience the next time I am tempted to burst out with an answer before the dust settles. Thank you for your comment.
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