Tag: respect

Happy New Year and a New Focus Word

On By vickleaIn Scripture2 Comments
Click on the image to make it larger so you can read the small print. 😊

I don’t make resolutions. I found out long ago that making a resolution was an exercise in futility that generally ended up frustrating me because I couldn’t carry it out. Lose weight? Good idea…but didn’t happen. Sleep more by going to bed earlier and sleeping later. Great idea…again, didn’t happen. So, after years of promising myself that I would do better, I changed my resolution to a focus word. I have been doing that for the last five or so years now. My focus word for 2024 was “trust.” I have always had difficulty trusting people after my father disappointed me so much, so I also had problems trusting God. I didn’t (and sometimes still don’t) want to relinquish control. Having “trust” as my focus word made me more mindful of when I was holding too tightly to the reins and not trusting God to be in loving control.

This year’s word is “listen.” I thought I was listening to others and to God, but I have discovered through self-reflection that I was treating God just like I do people. I was always thinking about the next thing I would say instead of listening with complete attention to what He was saying. So, for this year, I want to try to work on my active listening skills, with people and with God.

Honestly, I made excuses for my behavior, telling myself that at my age, if I didn’t say my thoughts, chances are I would forget them. God has been dealing with me about trusting Him to help me remember what I want to say and, in the meantime, to actually listen. You’re probably saying to yourself that listening isn’t hard and shouldn’t require practice. But ask yourself how many times you listen so attentively that you can paraphrase what the person said and respond to it appropriately. How many times do you “zone out” or interrupt? For me, it isn’t easy to listen attentively and actively, so that is why it’s my focus word.

I found this graphic online to help me to remember what active listening looks like.

The big one for me is DO NOT TALK! God will be speaking to me through His Word and I want to express my opinions to Him. That shouldn’t be happening. I can talk to God when He is done talking to me, and not one minute before. Can you imagine Jesus interrupting the Father and telling Him just what He thought about the whole crucifixion thing? I am pretty sure that Jesus spent a lot of time listening to the Father because He consistently quoted the Scriptures in His teaching.

My point is simple. I wish for you all to have a happy, safe and healthy new year. Of course, I want that for me, too. But I also want to learn to be a better listener, someone with empathy and compassion, not someone who comes across as just too busy to take time to listen. And I want to hear what the Father is saying because He is the One with all of the wisdom, so I am thinking that listening to Him may improve my ability to apply wisdom to the circumstances of my life. At the very least, I want to be more aware of when I am actively listening and try to improve my stats on that skill.

Another short graphic to remind me that listening shows respect.
ATP: Attend, Think, Participate (I love to use acronyms!)

Finally, from Scriptures I have found about listening:

You have to listen in order to hear; then you can reflect on what you have heard and give your answer. From experience, I know that when I don’t listen to what my husband says, we end up having a disagreement, all because I didn’t take time to listen.
I really don’t think that I want to be known as a fool, so I would rather learn to keep quiet and listen. It’s amazing what you can hear when you are tuned in!
Wow! The promise is that God WILL tell me great and hidden things. How will I know what He is saying if I am not willing to be quiet and listen? When we ask for wisdom or any kind of help in a situation, do we actually sit and wait, listening to the answer? Or do we move on with our day, without paying attention to the fact that God was speaking if we had only listened? I am talking to myself here, but if this truth applies to you too, I’m glad that we can work together on the skill of listening.

Lacking Fear of the Lord

On By vickleaIn Scripture2 Comments

As I listen to snippets of the news (I can never stand to watch an entire broadcast because the reports are so negative) and receive blurbs about what’s happening around the world, I am struck by one common theme. People around the world have lost their fear of God. They don’t reverence Him nor are they awed by His power. Mankind in general has become a god unto themselves. They are their own idols, and in setting themselves up for their own narcissistic worship, they deny the reality of God and the fact that one day He will reign and every knee will bow before Him.

It is the fear of the Lord that gives life because in fearing our Lord, we are ready to submit to Him and His desires for us. The escape from death comes when we recognize Jesus as Savior and Lord so that one day we can live eternally with Him. Those in the world today are living for today with no thought for the eternal consequences of their actions. That is why it is imperative for those of us who know the truth to be good ambassadors and share the Gospel, even when others don’t want to hear it. We have to fulfill our responsibility before the Lord, giving Him the respect and awe He deserves and then step back and let Him work in that person’s heart. One person at at time is how change happens, and the Lord knows that change certainly needs to happen in our world today. I think it starts with a healthy fear (respect) of God.

Ready or Not!

On By vickleaIn Scripture2 Comments

Remember the old game we played as children called Hide ‘n’ seek? Some hid and one child would count and then call out loudly, “Ready or not, here I come!” As Christians, we are supposed to always be ready for Christ to return. But there is more to that statement because as the Bible reveals, we also have to always be ready to tell others about Him, the hope who lives within us.

It’s easy to converse with others and not bring up God because we are very self-centered. Recently, I spent a week with my sister and got to give the testimony of God’s grace and goodness in my life, particularly when I had my stroke. I found myself veering off topic and talking about how quickly the ambulance arrived, how I got the clot-busting shot just in time and how my beloved husband slept on the floor alongside my bed in the ICU. Almost as an after-thought, I found myself saying that God was good to me and set everything up perfectly for me to be saved and alive. An after-thought! After all that He has done for me? What was I thinking? The truth is that I wasn’t. I was just telling the story and forgot to make God the center of it when He has been the center of my life for years. Apparently, though, I was not ready to give an answer that included Him until the end of the story. I’m resolving from now on to make Him the beginning, middle and end of the story and the rest of the story (the “fluff”) can go wherever it fits, if it fits. I don’t want to miss out on other opportunities to give God all of the glory!

How about you? Have you missed out on opportunities like the one I described? Good thing that God is the God of second chances (and third, and fourth, etc.). I have no doubt that He will remind me of this incident and help me the next time that I am giving this testimony to give the answer that is the real reason that I’m alive and recovered from a massive stroke. God was right there with me, from the ambulance ride, to the ER, in the ICU and in rehab. Every step I took and every skill I had to learn, He was there with me, encouraging me with His love. He is certainly always patient with me and wants me to get better at giving an answer. Thus, I have started my answer on this page. I’m ready now!

I hope that your day is blessed with opportunities to point to God and give the only answer to the hope that lives within you.