Monday, November 30, 2009

Tis the Season for...Listening

I like to talk.

I like it so much that I make my living doing it.

I like it so much that God decided to give me a ministry that includes it.

You know all that research about how many words girls have compared to boys, how even from very young ages, girls will use about ten times the number of words in a day that boys do?
I'm here to tell you that research is right on, yes it is. Except at my house, with three females living here, my husband's words are buried exponentially. Bless his heart.

I like to talk when I'm praying. Sometimes I am talking for a practical reason: to keep my ADD brain from flying off to the grocery list, or an assignment for 1st period, or a chore that must get done. Mostly, however, I talk because I, well, like it.

For Christmas, I want to give God something I often neglect to do.
I want to listen.

Years ago, I found a Christmas devotional that I've used each year since. It's called Jesus, Be in My Christmas by Sarah Hornsby. Allow me to share a brief word from it:
If I listen, God speaks daily to me, making the most ordinary of circumstances profoundly holy. God speaks through words of wisdom, words of Scripture or song, through intuitive insight. God speaks through nature, events, friends, children, husbands/wives, through the sacraments. God even speaks through mistakes and through deliberate wrongs others do to me.
Father God, thank You for Your tireless efforts to communicate with me. I want to be open, available, listening, ready to participate in bringing in Your kingdom, whether in small, quiet, ordinary ways or great. Jesus, be in my listening.

Shhh...can you hear Him?

Blessings,
Ginger

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