Listening...

Why is listening such a hard lesson to learn? We are taught from an early age that we need to listen to our parents. We need to listen to their voice for many reasons but one being to heed warnings! They are trying to protect us and at times save us from danger. We teach our children to listen to our voice. These past few weeks our school lessons have been on a theme of "Attentiveness." (We use KONOS curriculum found here) Our lessons have a great variety of hands-on, book work & practical living scenarios to drive this point home.

One game we played (which is now Tyler's favorite) is to give him a bag and recite a list of things he must get and bring back to me. So, I would say "Bring me something blue, something round, something fuzzy, something small & something purple." Off he would run in search of the items! I'm not sure who had more fun - him or ME!! I gave him praise for each correct item he brought me and encouraged him to continue until he had found everything on my list. If he didn't remember something we talked about it and why he didn't remember. This game not only encourages listening it also encourages following directions & being observant.

After we played several rounds of this game, I sat him down and we talked about why this game was a good lesson for our lives. Not only do we need to listen when playing a game, we also need to listen when Mom or Dad gives instructions or when in a classroom situation (i.e. Sunday School). We then talked about how important it is to listen to our parents voice - especially when they call our name from a distance or very loudly. There are reasons parents raise their voice at us. Sometimes it is to give correction (which we are working on lowering our voices in this house - we come from loud families ourselves, so this is a work in progress), but other times it could be to save us from danger - such as when we are in a parking lot & Mom might see the approaching car! We talked about how important it is to STOP immediately when we're told or our name is called. There is ALWAYS a good reason!

Then, we moved on to the MOST IMPORTANT person to listen to - GOD!!!! We talked about how God always has our best interest in mind and when we listen to Him he will guide us. Now, keep in mind I'm trying to explain this to a 5-yr old. It is quite difficult to explain how God will tell us what to do when He doesn't have an audible voice! So, it was brought to my mind that many times our Mommy's and Daddy's are God's voice to us! When we say STOP it's because God has prompted Mom or Dad to say it because of things we've learned. Listening to God's voice is not easy at first, because it takes time to know what it sounds like - just like a baby learning to recognize Mom & Dad's voice. But, the more you practice listening to HIM the easier it will be!!

This, I believe is the MOST IMPORTANT lesson I can teach my child! Listening to God through the Holy Spirit has long been forgotten by many Christians. We've become complacent and comfortable in our own life and the path we're on that we forget to "check back in" with God and His ever changing plans. The fundamentals will never change but the path will most likely change - and often! We need to constantly seek HIS guidance, HIS will and HIS path for our life. Our life is not anything what we thought it would be after 7 years of marriage. We thought we'd be in a comfortable ministry somewhere, building a church & a family. Instead, we've found ourselves trying to make ends meet on a weekly basis, a job my husband is not happy in, and very little family time due to my husbands work/sleep schedule. We are doing what we can, but life is complicated right now. My husband feels a calling from God, but frankly we're not sure where it's going to lead us. Right now, we are the ones being tested in our listening skills. And, let me tell you - IT'S HARD!!!! We are confident that in time God will reveal His plan clearly to us, but in the meantime we must continue to pray and wait (which is the hardest part)!! We are ready to go and serve wherever He leads us - we're just waiting to hear where that might be!

Throughout this trial I've realized that if we don't listen to our Father daily, we will most likely find ourselves lost and eventually unable to hear His voice because we're out of practice. I sure don't want that to happen - do you? Take time today to talk to our Father and if you're out of practice ask Him to teach you how to hear His voice again. Ask Him to make His plans known to you so that you can continue doing work for His glory!!

Many blessings to you as you Seek Him First!!!

Annette