It's a Hole in One!

Well, here we are at the end of January.  I just watched "Julie and Julia" this weekend.  What a fun and encouraging movie!  Maybe it was because I had spent the last 24 hours cleaning up from a two year old with the flu, but I felt inspired to start a blog of my own.  I don't know what insight a mom of three boys can add to the constant barrage of information on the web, but I'll have a go at it!

Check out this ancient Hebrew proverb, "Happy the generation where the great listen to the small, for it follows that in such a generation the small will listen to the great."  Do you remember being young (or younger) and wanting so badly to share something you learned only to be dismissed without the chance to share?  What a bummer!  And now, when that person wants to share with you, how do you respond?  Is it the same way?  Guard up, ears closed, "Sorry, too busy here.  Gee, how nice you have an opinion, I've more important things to do."  Here we are in a society so itching to validate and give a person worth through programs and strategies.  How many books will we write to all different generations trying to tell them their worth?  Maybe just five minutes listening would make all the difference?

I could use to take the five minutes, between dishes and dirty diapers; to stop, make eye contact, and actually listen.  Not that funny time where my face is positioned for listening, but my mind is on all of the other uncompleted tasks.  Real listening -- where I am completely engaged in what someone else is saying.  Taking time to stop and share in someone's life and the elements that make it exciting for them.  I need to do this more.  Hit the "pause" button and listen.

I pray today that you are able to share with someone who actually hears what you are saying.  I pray you are able to share yourself with another and experience the love of Christ through listening and hearing what is said by another.