listening

   I love to hear stories about the humorous things children say, but this has to be one of my all-time favorites:

     In a kindergarten class, there was a boy who wasn't listening to the teacher. The teacher said to him, "Since you don't want to listen, you sit at that table by yourself."

     After a few minutes, a little girl in class raised her hand and said, "Teacher, I don't want to listen either. Can I sit with him?"

     We may not always be willing to admit it out loud, but most of us have experienced situations where we thought to ourselves, "I don't want to listen."  It may have been a teacher we didn't want to listen to, or our parents, or that co-worker who won't seem to shut up.  "I just don't want to listen."

     There's a danger, though, that we may take the same approach with God. Jesus said of some of the Jews, "For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears..." (Matthew 13:15).  Basically, their attitude toward Jesus was, "We don't want to listen."

     But, if we don't listen, we can't learn.  And if we don't learn, we can't grow.  May we all take to heart the advice of James -- "Be swift to hear!" (James 1:19)

     "Lord, please forgive me for those times when I have been so intent on doing things the way I wanted to do them that I closed my ears to what you had to say.  Teach me, guide me and counsel me with your wisdom.  I want to listen!  In Jesus' name, amen."

-alan smith