Have you noticed that most everyone enjoys talking these days, but there are fewer and fewer good listeners? The problem is that we shortchange ourselves if we only talk and don't listen. We can't really learn if we don't listen. And often God is using people in our lives to tell us or even teach us things we need to know. Even the people who annoy us most may be in our lives for a purpose. The very things we struggle with and don't want to hear may be exactly the things we need to hear, to prompt us to change, or to see things in a new and helpful way. As someone once said, there's a reason we were given 2 ears but only one mouth!