Happy Thursday and b-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r!!!

The temp is dropping rapidly, but I am snug and warm in bed writing to you while watching Texas and Alabama play football. What a game!! I don’t know if is appropriate to pray for a team to win, but it seems to me that Texas (while behind by a field goal) and “the Freshman”, have earned this one.

Psalm 46: 10 “Be still, and know that I am God.”

As a teacher for 30 years I have made my living talking. I must admit that often, when someone is talking to me, I am already formulating what I am going to say in response. When I do that I am not really listening. And sometimes I even have been known to interrupt the person speaking just so I can say what I need to say or very honestly what I believe them to need to hear. This is a trait I am trying very hard to reverse.

I am trying not only to be a better listener when a peer, colleague, friend or family member is speaking to me, but I am really trying to be quieter before God and let Him speak to me. I am trying to cultivate a time of silence and listen for God’s voice in the silence.

Let me illustrate. Several years ago I was working in the kitchen preparing food for a youth weekend event. One of the rules was that all watches were to be removed because we were on “God’s time.” Another adult working with me was a retired nurse. She told me that upon her retirement she took off her watch and had never worn one again. After the weekend I decided I would try that practice for the summer. At first it was really strange to not wear a watch or know the time at a moment’s glance. But the longer I practiced going through each day without a watch, the more I began to realize time is not measured in minutes and seconds, time is measured in moments. And sometimes those moments are spent in silence.

When I first began to put this practice of being silent before God into place it was really hard. I was used to leading the conversation and telling God how I thought things ought to be and how He ought to accommodate me. In the silence I have learned that God needs to speak to me in my prayer life and I must be silent and listen. The most important lesson I have learned in these times of quiet is that God calls us to be perfect. “Be you therefore perfect…” God did not call us to do perfect things, but to have His perfect love dwell within us. My efforts in doing “stuff” are not what God wants. God wants me to show His perfect and everlasting love to those around me and to worship Him with my whole heart.

On the last day of school each year when the children have been dismissed I take off my watch. For the summer months I am on “God’s time.” I look forward to that moment each year. Each morning as I begin my prayer time on my way to school I greet the Father, giving thanks for His loving kindness, His infinite blessings and ask for forgiveness. Then I invite the Holy Spirit to dwell within me and speak God’s Word as I quietly listen.

Take joy in the journey; wear comfortable shoes and a really warm jacket. Count your blessings and say your prayers. Love you all, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am moved only by what I believe and I believe God.

Prayer alert: Ashley Cromwell, a teacher on my team received news today that her god brother died of a massive heart attack. He was a very young man and this has hit their family very hard. He had an eight year old daughter. Please pray for this family as they mourn this loved one.