Picture a group of mommies sitting in a living room trying to visit while their preschoolers play. There’s a scream from the playroom and mom #1 recognizes her daughter. She slowly gets up and tells everyone not to worry. Little Suzy is going through a screaming phase. In a few minutes there’s a loud cry that sounds like someone’s dying! Mom #2 tells the women that this is her little drama child and don’t get upset, someone probably took his toy – Yes, this really is how playdates go. Half an hour later the ladies hear a barely detectable whimper. Mom #3 jumps and runs. Her daughter is quiet and tough and if she’s crying, something is wrong. All three moms were correct. If you, like me, are a mom you know this is truth. I find it remarkable that you can pick your child’s voice out of crowd, but I know you can. There’s no college course on this; it just happens when you love someone so much that you study their every way, sound and move.
Jesus told us that His sheep hear His voice and know Him. The more we love and study Him, the more we recognize His voice, His ways, His moves. This can be trial and error at first. Self has an awfully loud voice sometimes! The wonderful thing is, as we learn to love the Lord more, Selfish begins to fade and our ears tune in to something better.
I’m going to go way back to possibly the first time I asked God for an answer and got a definite answer. Or maybe it was just the first time I recognized it! As I always have, since I’m kind of slow, I asked Him to be very clear so that I would have no doubt. You knew I would have a story…
I was a young teenager in a small town. I was very involved in my church and youth group. One day I came home and Mom and Dad told me that we were going to go to another church. Of course, I was to go with them. This wasn’t easy for me. Not knowing much more about the new church my first question was, “you mean I can’t dance anymore?!” I know, very mature.. but , even though I was a quiet wallflower most of the time, I loved dancing. We would have rodeo dances at the Jaycee hall and I enjoyed the dancing and visiting with friends. I was used to talking to my Father God so as I contemplated new things I asked Him to be the one to answer this question for me. Soon there was another dance and I was on my way (I hadn’t heard otherwise yet). I walked in a back door and along the side of the dance floor. Pretty quickly a cute cowboy saw me and walked over. I can still remember his name – it was a cute cowboy name. We danced a couple times, which I don’t recall anything about, and then he asked me to ‘go outside’ with him. I knew what ‘go outside’ meant and I politely declined. Then he insisted and even acted a little put out with me. I’ve known this guy a total of 10 minutes! This had never happened to me before. Finally, I asked him, “What makes you think I’m that kind of girl?” His reply left me speechless, “When you walked through that door, I thought you were that kind of girl.” I don’t know what he was thinking, but I knew that my Father had just given me a very clear, blunt answer! I turned around and walked out the door and never came back. That day His voice came through a handsome teenage cowboy that had no idea who I was listening to.
Everyone is different and I’m not condemning anyone. But my Father was taking care of me that day. Maybe God knew I was going to marry a cute Christian boy with two left feet so I might as well get ready! Lol One thing I do know for sure, God speaks to us if we will only listen. It’s gotten easier as I’ve known Him more. As I study His Word I learn His patterns – and the patterns of the evil one. He loves us like no other and brings us mercy and protection. God is by far my favorite speaker.
Take a listen and be blessed.