Last night, I noticed that one of our plants was bone-dry. Its leaves and flowers were drooping and listless. I watered it and went to sleep. This morning, it was fully alive again. Maybe the same thing happens in our souls when someone kindly listens.
“Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort, of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but to pour them all out just as they are, chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keeping what is worth keeping and then, with the breath of kindness, blowing the rest away.” Dinah Maria Craik
“Be kind to one another, tender-hearted. . . .” Ephesians 4:32
Father, please teach me today in each conversation to kindly listen, sifting to find the grain and gladly blowing the chaff away.