For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer.
1 Peter 3:12
Now, my God, may your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.
2 Chronicles 6:40
When we don’t feel like our point-of-view is being heard, we can quickly become lonely, sad, frustrated, or even angry. This is one of the biggest contributors to conflict in our relationships and society as a whole.
Psychology Today
Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through.
Luke 19:1
A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
Luke 19:2-4
When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.”
Luke 19:5
Ninety percent of life is just going about your business. It’s a meeting at work, a trip to the supermarket, or small talk with another parent while dropping the kids off at school. And usually there are other people around. In these normal moments of life, you’re not staring deeply into another’s eyes or unveiling profound intimacies. You’re just doing stuff together—not face-to-face but side by side. You are accompanying each other.
David Brooks, How To Know a Person
Our schools and other institutions have focused more and more on preparing people for their careers, but not on the skills of being considerate toward the person next to you. Small talk and just casually being around someone is a vastly underappreciated stage in the process of getting to know someone.
David Brooks, How To Know a Person
A 2012 study by Harvard neuroscientists found that people often took more pleasure from sharing information about themselves than from receiving money.
She went on her way and wandered in the desert of Beersheba. When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes. Then she went off and sat down nearby, about a bowshot away, for she thought, “I cannot watch the boy die.” And as she sat there nearby, she began to sob. God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter, Hagar?”
Genesis 21:14-17
