A wrestling match

Hey all my sweet bloggy friends!!

Quick shout out to Facebook and my ability to stay in touch when I was on bloggy break!!! Is that an oxymoron or something?? Those two thoughts don't seem like they should even go together in the same sentence!

So, was I really on break?? Yes!

I peeked in here and there, but for the most part.....I was 100% Facebooking. Clearly, this addict needs help. Drop the blog, but let's Facebook all day long!

But, I had about a week off from having to think about what in the world to blog about. That was nice. I was feeling overwhelmed and felt like I need to breathe and concentrate on some other things....like children, hubby, and Jesus.

I have tried to figure out how to enter back into the land of blogging with some bang but I don't know what that would be.

Halloween pix? Nah.

Video?? Nah.

Pictures in general? Nah.

All the bad stuff I've been dealing with? Nah.

How about this food for thought for today.....

" We are constantly bombarded with sounds. Either the radio announcer is talking to us, or the voice through the phone receiver is. And if we are able to escape momentarily and grab a moment of silence, we confront the most deafening noise of all: our internal voice. Yes, our days are filled with people speaking to us, but for most, it is our internal speaking that fills every crevice and crack of our conscious moments. When we see a neighbor, our opinions speak a piece about her. As we talk with a coworker, beyond our words, our thoughts speak volumes. Even as we embrace a loved one, our hearts can be quite chatty with criticism or distractions. And most devastatingly, our times of prayer are loud with our voice but soft in the voice of God."

Totally stole that from Ravi Zacharius, but HOLY COW is that good or what???

I've been thinking alot about alot of things on this bloggy break and one or three being this....

1. The attention I give God. I mean, I say I have Him first in my life, but do I?

2. The attention I give others that are entrusted to me.

3. The attention I give those I'm around on a daily basis outside of family.

What has me distracted? Am I ADD? Why can't I be fully present to someone or one particular thing?

What has you distracted?

Go back and read that paragraph again from Ravi. Go ahead. I'll wait. And, it gets better with paragraph 2. Read on when you are ready....

"These are all connected. In each we demonstrate our ability to listen: our ability to become quiet, open ourselves to another, and focus upon their concern. True listening only occurs when we disentangle ourselves from our internal morass of self-centeredness. Only as we internally soften the focus upon ourselves and became captivated in concern for another do we begin to listen. It is only via true listening that we will ever consistently hear the people that populate our world. Yes, on occasion, we can be jolted out of the dominance of our internal voice by the tragedy another has suffered or by the lightening bolt of God's conviction. But on a daily basis, on a minute-by-minute basis, unless we take on an attitude of true listening our world will resound with our own internal voice."

Hang in there....one more final paragraph to bring her home....

"The lack of true listening is the cause of much of our spiritual weakness for if we place the mouth before the ear, our prayers will be dominated by our mouths and not our ears. This results in prayers full of our requests and our desires and lacking in God's requests and God's desires. We end up presenting our questions for God, but do not wait to hear His questions of us. Let us learn from Jacob that wrestling with God in prayer means that God wrestles back. This powerful thought should make us tremble. We ought not bend our knees blithely, for God might bend us as we kneel before Him."

I've been in and am still in a wrestling match with God and it's been going on for a mighty long time and honestly.....I'm tired of it.

This devotion speaks so much to me and I hope it does to you as well.

I'm happy to be back. I sure missed y'all. But, God and I had to get dirty over some things and unfortunately it ain't over yet. He's teaching me to listen. And, I'm having to tune some things out in order to hear Him.

I love Him dearly and I know He is for me and not against me.
Spend some time with Him. Alot of time with Him. Open those ears!

Hugs and blessings~