Listening

 One would think that on a weekend trip away from the kids, I'd be capable of being an EXCELLENT listener, one would think. That one would be wrong! Let me paint you a picture with my words:  We're sitting at a quaint table in the middle of our inn's dining room, eating a beautiful homemade breakfast. I'm sipping on HOT coffee, as my husband reads aloud a chapter from, "In The Grip of Grace" by Max Lucado. The words he's reading I so badly want to hear, I need to hear. The beauty of GRACE is exactly what my broken, worn out, doubtful mom heart needs to hear. But, we're not the only ones in the dining room. A few tables away the co-owner of the inn is giving advice to a middle age couple on their wayward children. The woman's voice is so pretty! My later discovery that she was from Argentina fit perfectly with how romantic her voice sounded. Then there's an old couple whispering about how they've been coming to this area ever since they were dating, and that this is the place they've come to every year for over thirty years of their marriage. SWOON! How adorable!?! I also hear this cute old guy sitting down at the piano to enjoy his slow morning by showcasing his exceptional musical talent on the keys. I think I recognize one of the tunes he's playing as a hymn sung from my childhood, I hum the melody in accompaniment. But wait, oh crap. My husband has definitely just read at least a whole paragraph, and I have no clue what a word of it was. Relatable? I ask him if he could reread it, and because he is becoming more and more like Christ as the years go by, he patiently flips back a page and starts again. I commit this time to listening, but I was struck with how intentional I had to be to hear his voice above all the others. I couldn't try to listen to both the truth he was reading, and listen in on the intriguing stories of the other inn's patrons, or enjoy the beauty coming out of the piano forte. Nope. If I was going to hear the words from our book, I was going to have to focus on that alone. I looked at him, I let my ears pick up on what his voice sounded like, and determined that none of the other sounds were worth my attention.

May you hear God's whisper in the wind, like Samuel. May you focus on the only voice worth listening to. May you hear God's voice. It may not be the loudest, it may not initially be the most interesting, it may not be the most catchy, but it is the voice that is most important for you to hear.