 Hey, just wanted to share it very quickly about what we see in Daniel chapter 6, right? Daniel chapter 6, about the life of Daniel, something that we learn and something that just to inspire us to, the way we can live for God, it's amazing. In Daniel chapter 6, we read about how Daniel distinguished himself way above all the people, the satraps and everyone, the people who were their governors and so on. And the king actually thought, maybe I should give Daniel in charge of the entire kingdom, right? That's what we see. And the people who were there, the governors, the satraps and all the other people, we see that they conspired against Daniel and then they said this. They said, we cannot find anything, any charge against this Daniel, okay? Or any mistake or anything against this Daniel, except if we can find it against the law of God, of his God, right? Except in his belief, in his faith. Apart from that, in his work, in his work ethics, his integrity, we can't find anything wrong. We can't find fault with him. So that's what they said. And so they conspired and they said, let's make it a rule that only the king shall be petitioned or you can pray only to the king. And the king, of course, signs it. He doesn't think too much about it. King Darius signs it. Now, we read in Daniel 6 and verse 10 that Daniel, when he knew that this writing was signed, he went and he prayed, how many times? Three times, right? He prayed as was his custom since the early days. So he did not change his posture. He did not change his spiritual life or spiritual discipline because of this. Another way to look at it is like it says, he did it as was his custom in the early days, since the early days, meaning that didn't work as custom. He had it instilled, he was consistent. In other words, this is what we see. So that's something that we learn about Daniel. Apart from the fact that he was a person of integrity and excellence, we see that he was a man of discipline and being consistent. Verse 16, the king realizes what he has done and then he comes to Daniel. Daniel is about to be cast or thrown into the den of lions. He comes to Daniel and he says, Daniel, your God whom you serve continually, he will deliver you. In other words, you're saying that Daniel, you've been consistent. You've been consistent in the way you serve your God. It's something that a pagan king, you realize that he's saying, he's not saying my God or our God, he's not yet come to that relationship or still at a distance, he's observing and he's saying your God whom you serve continually, he will deliver you. So he's noticed something about Daniel. He's noticed his faith, he's noticed his excellence in work, etc. and he's saying your God whom you serve continually. In other words, he's saying, you've been so consistent in your serving of your God, he will save you. So something that stands out for us in the life of Daniel is, apart from all the other attributes, it's a life of consistency. A life that is so consistent when it comes to his walk with God, when it comes to his spiritual discipline, when it comes to his work. It's something for us to see, something for us to learn and emulate. Is it possible? Yes, it is. We see it in Daniel's life and so also we read about in Joseph's life. So let's pray and say, Lord, I want to be consistent. I want to be consistent. Help me, enable me to be consistent in my life in everything, in everything, all aspects of my life help me to be consistent. Let's pray. Father, we thank you Lord. We thank you even as we studied from the life of Daniel, Lord, enable us to be consistent. We thank you for all the sources that you've given us. We thank you that your very presence, Lord, indwells us, Lord. You indwell us by your Holy Spirit and so Lord, we thank you that you will enable us to walk in this manner. Help us to be consistent. Help us to, Lord, to put to death the things of the flesh, God. If by the Spirit you put to death the needs of the body, you will live. And so, God, we pray that even as we pray right now, Lord, let things be put to death. Let things be brought to an end that are counterproductive to living, to live a life of consistency, counterproductive to life itself, God. I pray that those things will be brought to an end. I pray that all lethargy and complacency, Lord, will be removed out of our life slot and enable us, cause us to thrive and flourish, Lord, to this life that you've called us, God. We thank you. In Jesus' master's name, we pray. Amen. Amen. Okay. So let's pick up from where we stopped last class about, we were studying about communication and we saw that communication verbal, non-verbal, and all kinds of everything in between, like gestures and everything. So just do a list of some of these non-verbal communications and we see that as important as words are, so also the gestures or everything else that accompanies these words because they will indicate whether a person who's communicating, whether there is any conflict between the message and what they're saying, do they really mean what they say? Is there any conflict because of which the gesture doesn't suit the message, the content, or the tone and the pitch of it of how it is said does again conflict with the content of the message. So here are some things to help us, right? Body movements, hand gestures, nodding of head, et cetera. Or if it is not there and the person is still saying that I agree and it's not accompanied by gestures that kind of reiterate that, then you know to what level that agreement is, posture, the posture of the person, whether they are, it is an open posture, inviting posture or a close posture, restrictive posture, defensive posture, we understand that. Eye contact, if a person continues to, you know, is not comfortable looking in the eye, then you know that they're not comfortable, they're not agreeing to certain things, right? Or maybe they're not speaking the truth, they're not being truthful. They are, they have something that they, something that's, that they are not revealing, right? So eye contact, parallel language, meaning pitch tone, the speed at which we speak, rate of speech, right? All that is what we call as parallel language, right? Personal space, this is the, you know, this, this is so much influenced by culture as well, right? Personal space, you know, whether the person communicating whether they're too close, too far away, et cetera. And culture has a role to play to influence this as well. So that also helps to communicate them as a, facial expressions, smiling, frowning, blinking, you know, all these things which convey, right? Fear, anger, happiness, sadness, everything, right? There are some facial expressions which are, which are common across cultures, right? Now, certain gestures, certain facial expressions are common, but there could be some which are maybe, you know, part of one culture, but they're not, right? For example, even eye contact, you know, some cultures might feel that if you look a person in the eye, then it's a sign of disrespect. You know, it's a sign of disrespect. You're actually disrespecting their authority. You're looking, you know, you're standing, you're withstanding their authority. So it could be that. So a mark of respect could be not looking a person in the eye. Well, we need to understand the culture, right? Okay, facial expressions, physiological changes. Physiological changes could be a person fidgeting, and a person maybe just, you know, doing that on the table, you know, which indicates impatience, right? Let's get on with it. Let's get this done. So all this communicates something. So nonverbal communication is an integral part of communication, and we need to understand it, learn it, and make it part of our communication as well. So, you know, certain inviting postures. I'm talking about nonverbal, you know, cues. Now this could really help the listener, the one to whom we are communicating. The same way, you know, if somebody's telling us something, speaking to us, and our nonverbal gestures could actually help the person put at ease the person and help the person actually share if we are more inviting, if we are intimidating or closed in our postures, then maybe they would hold back or withhold from communicating their heart. So as we are in, you know, in ministry and wanting to serve the Lord, this is something very important for us, not only for the counselors, not only for those who are in pastoral kind of roles, but for everyone, right? It's actually a very important thing for us to learn, right? Okay, so let's move on to the next topic, which is about listening. Now we saw that when it comes to communication, speaking is one part of it, right? It's just one part of it. Communication is always a two-way street. It is not just downloading of information, just going on and on without the other person receiving, right? The person receiving and ensuring that they communicate that they are receiving, you know, it's also a very important part of communication. I would say it's the second part of communication, right? Second half of it. So both halves make the whole, right? So what about listening? So listening is a very important aspect and much ignored aspect of communication, right? So it is when we listen that we actually receive the information accurately. It is when we listen that we actually discern and correctly interpret whatever is being shared. So listening is not just hearing, okay? So that's the thing, listening is not just hearing. Why? Because hearing is just the physical ability to receive that sound, to make sure that, yes, the sound is being received, okay? That is hearing. But when it's listening, it is much more than that. It is making sure that we are receiving it. It is making sure that we are deciphering it, understanding it, that all that goes into listening, okay? So listening requires more effort. Listening requires focus. Listening is intentional because you're making an effort in order to make sure that you receive it correctly, right? So listening is that. So it's just not hearing, okay? So, for example, a person could be just really reading something, reading the newspaper, maybe engaging in a conversation with the other person and saying, oh, yeah, yeah, go ahead, go ahead. Tell me, I'm listening. Yeah, just go ahead and tell me what you wanted to say. But are they listening? No, they're not listening. They're hearing, but they're not actually listening. Or we might be checking our phones and checking our messages and saying, yeah, just go ahead. I'm still listening to you. Go ahead. But if you look at it, are they actually listening? No, they're not, right? They are hearing what is being said, but they're not actually listening. Why? Because there's lack of focus. There's lack of concentration. There's no intentionality and all that. So listening is very important. So let's look at a few things about listening. A few statistics. Based on research, it's an old one. When it comes to communication itself, we spend 70% of the time communicating something. And only 30% not communicating. So we're talking about verbal, non-verbal, everything put together. We actually communicate 70% of the time. There's some signal that we send out to the other person. Then the second thing to see is that this aspect of it, when it comes to communication, the 70%, we see that we listen or we need to listen 45%. Actually, listening happens. Reading, writing, speaking, make up the 55%, but listening is a big component. 45% of it is to be considered. Listening is to be considered. So let's look at some of the purpose. When you look at the big picture, what is the purpose of listening? To focus, to make sure that what is being said, spoken, what is being communicated is received correctly. Because we can perceive it very differently from the way it is being communicated. For example, if we do not look, consider the whole person when they are communicating, if we don't look at the gestures, if you don't look at the tone, consider the tone of their voice and so on, we miss out on a large portion of the message itself. So we understand it very differently from the way it is communicated. So we need to focus. We need to be good listeners. Accuracy of the message, to assess what is being said to analyze what is being communicated, all that requires listening. That is why in school, our teachers told us repeatedly, listen over and over again. So what enhances our understanding is, again, when we listen intentionally, when we take those cues of non-verbal communication. Listening also helps in communicating back to the person. It encourages the person. When we are listening intently, when we are agreeing, when we also communicate back with our gestures, we are also so showing this, telling the person that, hey, I'm interested in what, go on. Tell us some more, go on. So maybe you are in a counseling kind of a situation. And you're counseling someone, the person is actually telling their problems. Just imagine if they stop with 10% of the problem. And why did they stop? Because we were not listening. Maybe because we were preoccupied, maybe we were distracted, maybe we just zoned out. And people can see it in our eyes when they're talking, when they're saying something and we are so far away. And maybe we are nodding at the most inappropriate times or saying, yes, at the most inappropriate times, which means that we have clearly lost track of what is being said. So the person also loses interest and tends to shut down. And that can be detrimental if you are a counselor or if you need to make a decision based on whatever has been communicated. If you may need to make a judgment, if you need to discern what is right and wrong and if we are not good listeners, then our judgment, meaning our decision, our choice that we are making based on what we are receiving is going to be a little biased. Or it's going to fall short of how it should be because we've not heard the whole thing maybe. We just jumped in or maybe we missed out on the facts. Maybe there were three facts out of which we caught only one and the two important things we missed out. So it also helps the speaker to communicate fully, freely, openly, honestly. It also helps develop a selflessness approach because we are putting the speaker first. So all that happens. To arrive at a shared and agreed understanding and acceptance of both sides and views, that happens. So here are some principles of effective listening. So here are some things that we can put to practice. So first thing is when somebody is talking, when somebody is sharing, don't interrupt, stop talking. Stop talking. Don't talk. Listen. Don't interrupt. Don't finish their sentence. Maybe they're taking time and they're saying once upon a time and they're saying once upon a time and then you want to finish with once upon a time. Go on. We're a hurry. So don't finish their sentence. Don't interrupt. Don't talk over them. We're saying something and then we are saying something in addition to over what they're saying. Don't do that. So try it out. Just listen to what the other person is saying without interrupting. Listen intently. Listen to... We're going to look at a few other things. So prepare yourself to listen which means you relax. Put things out of your mind. Maybe you need to put your phone on silent. Maybe you need to... Some things are distracting. Put them away out of that scene out of that place so that you will not be distracted. This helps in marriage. This helps in parenting and helps in definitely in professional and ministry settings. So just relax. Put things that are worrying saying this one hour and I'm going to be with this person. I'm not going to think about that. I'm going to relax. I'm going to concentrate and I'm going to hear what this person has to say. Listen to what this person has to say. Put the speaker at ease. Enable the person to feel free to speak. That will help if you are inviting, encouraging. If we... Our gestures are there. If we smile not a lot, it will make it look very creepy places and just to be friendly to say that, hey, I'm here. I'm willing to listen. Go ahead. Focus on being said. Remove distractions. Can be our phones. Distraction can be maybe if our computer is open in front of us. It could be that. We could be tempted to look at the mail which is coming in. Maybe we're tempted to peek into our phone. What text... Some notification. We're tempted to look into it. But what if our phone is phased down? Our laptop is closed. We're removed. All kinds of distractions. Empathize. Empathize with the other person's point of view. We may not fully agree with what the person is saying. We may not agree at all. But empathize. Meaning just to say that I hear you. This is what you felt. Yes. We have an open mind and empathize. We don't have to nod in agreement to something. We don't have to be not truthful. We don't have to pretend. We don't have to be hypocritical in order to empathize. We can just say in your mind you tell yourself I don't agree with that. But then I'm going to listen anyway. Go ahead. We see that this is something that does not come naturally to us. It's counter-intuitive to us. Because we want to go on the offensive. Somebody says how can you say Jesus is Lord? Something. We want to go on the offensive. We want to go and say that these are the reasons and we're actually thinking of all these reasons etc. 6-1 Be patient. Maybe the person is taking time. Maybe you're used to speaking fast. You're used to listening fast. Even on the YouTube you listen to the videos one and a half times faster twice the speed. You watch the video at that speed and that's how you are. But it's not going to help if you hurry, rush the person and interrupt. So we need to be patient and to hear the verbs now. Sometimes when the person repeats when they repeat themselves and you've heard it before it helps to interrupt. I get it. I understand this is what you said. What is the next thing? If they're going in loops over the same thing over and over again we can move on to the next thing. That is something. But when the person is presenting facts and sharing some important information and maybe it's taking time maybe it's their speaking style maybe they're emotionally too emotionally disturbed maybe and they're taking time to settle down and the nature of what they're sharing is like that. Maybe it's sensitive emotionally moved and so on. Don't hurry. Pause. Take time. The other important one is listen to the tone the volume and the combination of that when they say something and they speak something. They will use variations of it the pitch, the volume, the tone it can be expressive some of the things that so you can actually you can see gauge the excitement you can gauge the mood of what they're saying you can sense the sadness in the tone in the expression so listen to that because the person is saying maybe the person is saying I'm so happy but the tone does not denote that so you know that although the person is saying that they're happy there's an underlying sadness there's something that's causing sadness to them so when we listen to the tone when we listen to the volume normally with the excitement the volume also goes up and with something that's challenging something they're afraid of something that something that they're discouraged with that the volume goes down and one more principle for good listening wait and watch for non-verbal communication gestures, facial expressions eye movements, all this wait and receive that what are the gestures what are the facial expressions so we see that it could be a far departure from maybe the style that we engage in in conversations maybe we're not used to looking at people in the eye maybe we're not used to listening intently maybe we are so used to jumping on to the other topic maybe we are so used to thinking of a response that's something that we do maybe somebody is coming with a problem and they're coming to you as someone who maybe can help maybe as an expert someone who has the learning to know how and so we are under pressure and because of that we actually end up not listening effectively because we're thinking of solutions we're thinking of answers how can I respond to that I don't want to look bad I don't want to be seen as someone who does not have answers I don't want to be seen as someone who does not have solutions this can happen in an office setting this can happen in team meetings these kind of settings as well where maybe even interviews where we are not listening to the other person and we are formulating answers coming up with defences and arguments and we actually miss out on what is being asked or what is being said so all these are very important this is an important skill to practice so the next time when we engage in a conversation we can practice this if it was an in-person class we would have done this we could have sat face to face and tried to listen to another person and done that here is the HURIA model of listening this is an acronym HURIA first one hearing physical act of hearing but also picking up non-verbal cues second one understanding so am I understanding what is being said which means you clarify receive maybe what is preventing me from understanding is it maybe the softness with which whatever is being said is it the language or are these the vocabulary, the words that are used the ideas that are communicated I am not able to understand it so what are some barriers try to set that right so understand remember the facts that are being shared it needs us to concentrate it needs us to make a mental note or maybe even write down if it is a formal setting and you say I am going to write down so that I don't miss out interpret meaning you build on you enhance interpretation you consider things like what is the context what is the mood of the person what are some things am I detecting a bias in this in all this so you interpret the message just like understanding it we are interpreting it which means it goes a step further where there is an aspect of analysis that happens evaluation evaluation don't jump to conclusions receive it evaluate which means way can respond way what is being said and respond the last one is responding so demonstrate show the person that you have understood whatever they are saying that you have understood that you have heard not necessarily agree if it is an agreement we can respond in agreement but if it is not also we can actually just communicate if you have received it but you can still the person that yes though they are not in agreement you are listening you are empathizing with what is happening okay so we realize that it's not in this order but it can happen very simultaneously it can happen very organically the whole process of listening what are some barriers having said that what are some barriers to effective listening okay so it's the opposite of the principles those are the barriers some barriers could be that distraction we get distracted based on what the person said and we are just anchoring on that focusing on that and we are losing out how can this person say that why does this person say that we are just focusing on that and then missing out on whatever else they say we don't listen to the rest of the message that the person has okay and it could be that also the rate at which one speaks maybe you are used to listening at a particular rate and then this person either speaks too fast or too slow so when we speak too fast, when we speak too slow that could be a barrier to listening that's something to be overcome okay and maybe it's it could be a personal habit of drifting off we say the person said something it was so boring I drifted off because we don't even exercise self-control we don't exercise self-control it's hard on our flesh and so we begin thinking about something else okay what can I do after I finish this conversation I wonder what's for lunch all those things because we are not really focusing so we get distracted okay so these could be some barriers to effective listening okay some other barriers we could focus on the way they are speaking the mistakes they make maybe some grammatical errors maybe their accent this actually influence if it's a positive thing but also on a negative note these could distract these could be a barrier to listening effectively okay so these are some things that we can consider when it comes to listening so we looked at principles we looked at barriers just want to reiterate that this is a very important skill before we move on to the next one this listening is a very very important skill and if we are not good listeners then we are not good communicators we answer things even before we hear it fully we come to conclusions before we hear the matter fully our analysis is impaired our analytical capability gets impaired because we are not receiving the information fully so as leaders as people of influence as people as maybe in ministry maybe as supervisors as overseers we need to we need to exercise this aspect or this ability we need to sharpen this ability and this is what we see in James chapter 1 30 of us James 1 19 so my beloved brethren let every man be swift to hear slow to speak slow to rough swift to hear and there is a famous quote I think it is let me just see that share that right at the beginning sorry okay this is Dr. Rachel Naomi an expert on communication sharing that the most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen just listen perhaps the most important thing we can give each other is our attention okay so we want to build a bridge as ministers we want to share the gospel as teachers we want to impart as maybe pastors we want to nurture you know basically in ministry or even professionally work we want to build that bridge so that we can effectively carry out effectively lead so this aspect of listening would is very very important is very necessary this is what Mark Twain you know and this is what we are getting to you know in line with what we read in James chapter 1 and verse 19 Mark Twain says if we were supposed to talk more than we listen we would have two tongues in one year okay so referring to the way in which we are created we have the way which we are designed is to listen which means there's an importance of listening so just want to encourage us to go through this and put to practice you know this week just put to practice just try it out try to be a active listener try to maybe clarify certain things what we don't understand not just not pretending to understand everything right and put all our insecurities away right what if I ask them this something very basic I know but I'm supposed to know this but I don't know I'll just pretend that I know it right so we can actually put away all those insecurities and be active in our listening okay any questions any questions or anything that you want to share in your experience so how would you rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 when it comes to listening maybe you can just read on the chat we heard these principles maybe you actively intentionally use these principles so how would you rate yourself on a scale of let's say 1 to 10 10 being super very good listener one being okay you know that 7 and a half 7 okay great anyone else how would you rate yourself as a listener others not in the reckoning at all okay right 8 okay good okay right so so when we include this and enhance our communication ability right when we are speaking or communicating when we add this facet it becomes a very powerful it becomes very impactful in our we become powerful communicators and we can study some of these communicators and how effectively okay so Rosalind says sometimes I lack to give solution okay that's okay because you can give what you have and that is what is expected so we can always say I can find out I can search I can research I can find out I can come back we can always do that so the person will go back saying okay at least this person is taking the effort this person has heard me out and so on right okay right so okay next is time management management of time so let me just share some opening remarks and then next class we will look at it when it comes to the leadership class that we studied we studied about this aspect of time so we have resources okay time is also a very important resource okay just like money or finances and just like ability or skill talent right that's a very important resource that's why we have the term human resource because human beings with their learning experience skill ability bring something to the organization to the team right so they are a human resource so we have financial resources human resource and also when it comes to time time is a very precious resource because something something to do with time is it's something that when it's it's moving it's kind of linear for a human being it's moving days months years keeps moving forward there's no backward there's no reversing time there's no going back in time right especially except in maybe science fiction books or science fiction movies where you go back or you go ahead right so we there's no going back in time so time is a very important resource so how do we utilize it well how do we manage it it's important for us to learn that and more importantly utilize that you know and I just want to say that yes it is it is something for us to get into practice every day we can have those peaks of good time management but if we let loose let things go we can go to the depths of mismanagement of time and it's difficult to come back it's difficult to get that gain that momentum and keep going so it's something which calls for consistency being consistent just like how we saw in the life of Daniel okay so we'll stop here and we'll continue next class where we look at time management right thank you so much any questions you can ask put on the chat otherwise we will we can close right okay fine no questions so we'll stop here thank you so much we'll meet again next week God bless bye bye