Hearing problems???

"There's an eye in my ____!"

   We had just moved into our new house. Ahhh, there was so much more room to spread out now and I was so excited to have a playroom. As if the space wasn't enough, the playroom also had this magical feature called a door that I could shut when the volume inside the room moved up to HERE! I always wished  it closed automatically!! But anyway, One evening, Caleb was excused to go play in there while Adam and I and baby Mackenzie finished up eating dinner. After a while though, Adam and I noticed it was quiet. (That's always a problem!) So Adam got up to investigate. He walked in to find Caleb, who's 3, jumping up and down with 2 fingers pressed to his ear. Then he would stop jumping, shake his ear with his fingers and whisper in a little boy voice, "There's an eye in my ear." "Hmmm, what did you say son?" Adam replied. To which Caleb did it all over again... jump, jump, jiggle, jiggle and whisper, "There's an eye in my ear." "There's an eye in your ear?" Adam repeated back. Caleb nods yes in between his repeated act. What do you do in a situation like this? Grab a flashlight and check it out! Laying the child on the couch, Dad peers in. It didn't take long to discover that yes, Caleb was right. He had an eye in his ear! One of those googly eyes from a craft project! Adam carefully removed the foreign object (don't try this at home!) and we have laughed about it ever since!

  Afterward, I realized why Caleb was jumping up and down. That jiggling googly eye was loud when pressed against his ear drum! Then when he stopped he had to make sure it was still there by jiggling it again. Which makes me think one step deeper, because God loves to use the common everyday things to speak to me, when I listen... Things sound really loud when they're up close.  I'm actually stealing that one from my husband, but it's so true! So simple, yet so profound, just like him. That eye sounded really loud because it was really close! But in reality, at a "normal" distance, you'd barely notice it. So here's my application and challenge: What in life is blaring loud and getting my attention? Is it loud because it's important or because it's on my eardrum? Am I paying attention to what's most important or just loudest? God usually whispers to me. Dishes, laundry and errands scream at me. I'm finding, though that when I spend time listening to God FIRST, the other things go back to a normal voice and they are sorted in order of importance.

    Father, help us hear your whisper, even when everyday life screams at us. May we hear your voice and follow after those things close to your heart! We need your help to do that. On our own we jump from  fire to fire and at the end come up empty. Breathe your breath of life in our days, I pray.   Amen