Daily Dose - The Gift of Listening - Renee Swope

"I am praying to you because I know you will answer, O God. Bend down and listen as I pray." Psalm 17:6

Whenever I read the devotions done by Renee, I can hear her. She does radio spots for KLove and The Promise, so I feel like I hear her words more accurately. I "know" her.

Anyway, through this whole devotion, all I could think is that I often don't "look up and hear" God. I put other things in the path of hearing Him.

Well, let's be honest, I put things in the path of hearing everyone. We all do. Except maybe my son. But he's 5 months old. The worst part is, sometimes I can even put things in the way of responding to something as little as a text or a phone call. This may sound weird to some of you because you know of my really outgoing personality.

I've really tried to make a point to not let anything keep my attention from G, especially my phone, the computer or the TV. But I have a habit of thinking to myself, "I'll just do the dishes, then I can sit down with a snack and do my devotion." Well, we see that I'm writing this at 10:50pm...so we know where that ends up most days. (p.s. A huge thank you to my sweet amazing man that is currently fighting the good fight with our tiny dictator for sleep)

See, I get so side tracked that God time sometimes takes a back seat...and then comes husband time taking a back seat, and friend time. A lot of people would read that and think it's normal when you have a small child, but...something tells me (read: previous experience) that if I put the time with God first like I should, everything else just falls into place. BUT...that's just too easy...

I guess my prayer isn't just to make time to give the gift of listening to the people in my life instead of the technology in my life...but also to the God of my life. Without Him in my life and as a start to my day, things get out of hand and my relationships seem to really suffer (read: sometimes my mouth and brain don't really talk...things go downhill quickly).

Father, thank you for giving me the gift of your ever present listening ear. Help me to put it in the right place in my day. I need the Holy Spirits gentle nudge and guidance to put down the phone or step away from the computer and make eye contact, because even though I try to do that already, I know I still fall far short of what I should be. Thank you so much for your ability to love your broken child. :)

(All these devotions are done with the daily email sent from Proverbs 31 Ministries and are done in a mirror fashion so that it is easy to read and follow. These are all my response to reading what these wonderful ladies talk about each day.)