I do not know about you, but I have a bad habit of not listening 100% when I am excited about a topic. In fact, I am so anxious to say something that often I will interrupt people. This could go way back to when I was young and people often would not listen, but I really do not know. I just know that I need to stop talking and start listening more.
James 1:19-27 New International Version (NIV)
Listening and Doing
19 My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. 21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
While these verse are not necessarily about listening to people, but to the word of God as is identified later on:
22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
It is also applicable to listening to others.
How often do we respond to someone because we think we have too? How often do we only partially hear what others say? How often do we get mad at a single word or phrase that others say?
We need to listen to what the other person(s) is saying in its entirety, think about what was said, then respond as appropriate. This is really true for me. It is not so much that I pick out one phrase or word, but that I do not 100% listen because it is a topic that I am passionate about. I want to interject my thoughts as soon as humanly possible and I am sure it comes out as being rude and not listening. I need to stop this and I am sure there are a lot of people out there that need to do the same