Reader,

As summer starts to wind down I’m looking forward to getting behind the podcast microphone on September 6 to launch Season 8 of You Were Made for This.​

The This we were made for is the joy found in life-giving relationships God designed for us. It’s what our podcast is all about.

A big part of the joy in relationships comes when we listen well to each other. Sadly, in today’s culture it’s not as valued or appreciated for the great gift that it is. Here’s the good news, though: listening is a relational skill that can be learned and mastered.

I’ve got two quotes for you that speak to how listening well can bless people in profound ways. The first is from H. Norman Wright who said,

Listening is a gift of spiritual significance that you can learn to give to others. When you listen, you give one a sense of importance, hope and love that he or she may not receive any other way. Through listening, we nurture and validate the feelings one has, especially when he or she experiences difficulties in life.

The second quote is from Jeff and Mandy Rose of MarriageMore.com. Here’s what they say about listening:

Being listened to is so close to being loved that most people cannot tell the difference.

We’ll talk more about learning to listen well in upcoming podcast episodes starting this fall. I’m confident you’re going to find them helpful in making your relationships the best they can be.

Until next time, I’ll close with that relationship quote I’ve been using lately from William Shakespeare’s play, The Merchant of Venice,

”I wish you all the joy that you can wish.”

John Certalic

P.S. If you’re not on our weekly email list for our podcast, and would like to be, please click here. You can also access our library of podcast episodes and blog posts when you visit johncertalic.com. They are all searchable by topic, keywords, and tags.

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