Are you listening?

God's word tells me to be still......to know that He is God.  Sounds easy and yet I find this really hard to do. Not the knowing He is God part, because I know He is but it's the being-still-part that has me flustered.  Oh I can stop for minutes at a time and be still but................for hours!  Oh my, not hardly.  My body might be still but my mind isn't.  I want to listen to God.  I want to hear him and yet I find myself talking....blah....blah...blah....and oh God....this....and that.  If I am talking then I can't possibly be listening too now can I.

Listening is a skill.  It is a learned behavior.  It is others centered.  Anyone can talk but not everyone can or does listen.  Have you ever had someone really listen to you when you talk?  I have and it's a beautiful thing.

9 &1/2 years ago I met a sweet lady named Sandy Pennington and God bless her she asked me to lunch and proceeded to listen to me cry & talk for hours.  I don't remember her saying much.  But I do remember her heart. She cried with me.  She heard the sadness, the loneliness, and the pain of what I was going through.   She heard me.  She prayed for me. Then because of what she had learned about me, she made a phone call to a leader of a bible study group who called me and invited me to join.  The group was called "Busy Hands & Warm Hearts."  I was (am) a crafter and this group met once a week to study God's word, have lunch together and then share a love of crafting.   Oh my heart I am so thankful to God for showing me what it meant to be truly heard.

Slowly with God's help I have learned how to listen.  My mantra is.....Be slow to speak and quick to listen.  When I am frustrated I say that passage over and over praying for God to help me be slow to speak.  Listen...just wait and listen.  There is a lot being said even during the quiet.  And that's when it hits me.  I can learn so much more from God if I will be still......quiet my soul.....let the Holy Spirit speak to my heart.  Then there is this blessed Peace..........the peace that passes all understanding that comes over me.  It isn't some thing I can do or bring about myself.  It's God speaking to my heart.

I am beginning to realize that relationships flourish during the listening part of a conversation.  Now don't get me wrong, I still like the talking part too.  :)  But now I love to listen to people share their life with me.  It's a gift.  It's a little bit of them that they are entrusting me with.  What I do with it, is up to me but if I listen to God's promptings....well who knows where this conversation might lead.

Until next time be blessed!