There is no such thing as a stupid question.....

While I grant that there is no such thing as a stupid question there may be somethings that we should consider in the light of asking more intelligent questions.
1. I had a favorite teacher in high school, Mr. Strange pretty awesome name right? He was teaching us Spanish, but I recently found that he taught us more than how to conjugate 14 verb tenses, he taught us how to ask better questions. We were to come up with everything that we could and bring the remainder to him. He wanted us to explain everything we could about the word in Spanish. It got to the point that we were speaking more Spanish than not, in fact almost always the only word that was not spoken in Spanish was the word we were looking for. It would help us to find the correct word firstly, but more important it taught us how to do more than just how do you say _____? It would more often go something like, "I am looking for a word or phrase that you would use to say ______. Then a follow up question, "Is there anything that I should be aware of as far as irregularities or is it normal? Is there anytime that you would use a different verb?" I learned that this is the better way to ask questions. When I call support at my work I try to formulate the situation the best that I can. Instead of saying,  "The computer is not working what should I do?" Asking, "I have already done X, Y, Z and this is what happened. I am looking at article ##### and I think that the next best step would be too_______. Can you think of anything else that I can try?"


2. Listening more than you talk. Listening more than you talk. Elder Bednar taught us about the Spirit of Discerrnment over this last weekend. "I believe that the gift of discernment operates more effectively when we're listening as opposed to when we are talking." Wow, so if you want to make an inspired decision Elder Bednar believes that you should be listening. All throughout this panel discussion the phrase Listening more than you talk kept coming up. The discussion leader may not do very much talking at all but if he/she is leading and guiding instead of dominating they are going to be more likely to be operating under the spirit of discernment. Can we emphasize getting the listening down enough?


(You may not be in a current leadership position but I don't think that it would waste anyone's time to watch especially if you love to listen to President Monson, Elder Oaks, Elder Cook, Elder Perry, Elder Ballard, Elder Holland, Elder Bednar, Sister Beck, Elder Gonzalez, & President Packer.)
http://new.lds.org/general-conference/sessions?lang=eng&bcpid=610705729001&bctid=666072576001


So how does asking better questions get us different answers? If you ask God can I do this? He will either say yes, no, I don't think that would be good, go ahead and try it, etc. If you go to God and say this is where I am and this is what has brought me to this point to make this conclusion. I think that this is the next step that I should take. Are there any considerations that I should make or anything that I should know before I go into this? Are you in  essence asking the same question, yes. But this second time you now have specific direction from God. Then you need to listen. If you are trying to twist what God is saying to fit what you want to hear why did you develop If you want to be in a better position, you need to listen.