You’ve probably heard of the saying, “God gave us two ears and one mouth, so we can hear twice as much as we say”. (Source unknown) So my question is, how did we mess that one up?
The Wednesday Bible Study group was introduced last Wed. evening to the material we will be studying,”The Way of Prayer”. It included an exercise titled, “Holy Listening”. Basically, we were to be aware of our listening inabilities and jot down when we wandered off into other thoughts, or wanted to interrupt for one reason or another, when we wanted to “help” the person, give comfort, etc. There were times of silence as each were either prompted to speak or not. I must say, we all did very well. But then, we were aware of our need to listen, the challenge to only listen and the consensus was that it was not an easy task to keep our mouths shut. But an amazing thing happened. We felt the presence of God in those moments of silence and listening. And He knew, as He always does, our needs, our soul?s deepest desires. The soul was seeking the very comfort that is ever before us. We were in prayer in our sharing and listening to one another. This was our beginning of learning prayer with the whole of our being.
Kids really do say the darnest things, don’t they? A couple of weeks ago, out of the blue, Kylie asked me why God made us. As quick as my fear of saying the wrong thing rose, it also subsided as I spat the words out, “Because He has so much love to give, He needed someone to give it to.” Her immediate response was, “God needs us to love Him too, right Nana?” During that conversation, I was in prayer with my whole being. And now as I think back I realize that my whole life can be a prayer to God. I think of the times when my joy is completely full with little girls running around; Kylie, Karlie, Kenslee, Rhilyn and Addison. I am so full of love that I must be in prayer, a prayer that needs no words merely the love pouring from my soul. It is the same when I sit in silence with Rick in the same room, he doing his thing, me doing mine, but being together…in silent relationship. My soul is so full of peace, love and joy that I can think of nothing other than how thankful I am to my Lord who has given me everything.
The presence of God is ever before us, we are just too loud to hear him, feel him, sense him. We have cluttered our lives so that we are unable to respond to his love. The sadder part of this is that we are teaching our children to do the same. How to stop it? How do we reverse it? I have but one answer, and it is not mine at all, but is from the Creator of our soul. “Be still and know that I am God…”
Psalm 46:10
God loves you immensely!
