Heard a great sermon yesterday from Kevin Myers at 12Stone Church. Talking about anger. Kevin reminded us of one of the most simple yet powerful verses in all of Scripture. From James.

"But let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger." James 1:19. Quick to listen, Slow to speak, Slow to anger. Quick, slow, slow. And then James goes onto to write in verse 20... "for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God." Yeah, convicting.

Man, how often I get that one wrong. I'm usually quick to speak, quick to get angry, and slow to listen. The complete opposite.

As leaders, we have to model this idea of "Quick, Slow, Slow" in the correct way for our teams and staff members.

And this means quick to listen to their ideas, even if you are confident that your idea is correct. This means letting them talk in a meeting, and letting them voice their frustrations, without you jumping in.

This means I'm slow to send a text that could be divisive. This means I'm slow to send an email that is filled with hateful comments and painful words. This means that I wait to make that phone call until I've had a chance to listen. This means that I always take a few minutes to cool down before responding.

I'll admit, I struggle with this. I always want to solve the issue by speaking up, vs. being the first to listen up.

And this is applicable in all facets of life, including family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, etc. So let's try and model this idea of quickly listening, slowly responding, and slowly becoming angry.