One night last week we had one of those lovely parenting moments. You know, the kind that make you want to pull your hair out. Or at least send your child to her room until she's twenty five!
Allie and I were trying to explain to Emily that she needed to do something differently than the way she had been doing it. Every time we would try to tell her how it needed to be done she would start to explain to us how she had been doing it. She wasn't necessarily trying to "back talk" or be disrespectful. She just REALLY wanted us to hear how she had been doing things.
That didn't change the fact that it was still driving us nuts that she wouldn't listen to us! Over and over, we would try to explain to her and she would try to tell us. It didn't matter that what she was doing wasn't working at all. It didn't matter that she KNEW she was not going to be able to do it the way she had been. She still wanted to tell us and she still wanted us to listen to her way of doing it. The more we refused to listen and only correct her, the more upset (I mean really upset) she got!
Finally, we stopped trying to explain and just heard her out. Once we had listened she was totally fine. She was suddenly willing to listen to how we wanted things done. She completely surprised me by how happy she was to do things our way. She just wanted us to listen to her.
After all the eleven year old drama...ugh, the drama... was over I was reminded about how often we respond to God that way. He tries to tell us that there is something in our lives that we need to change and all we want to do is tell him what we are doing. Like somehow by simply telling him what our plans are or what we have been doing, will make a difference in what he wants us to do.
But here is what amazes me about our God. In his mercy, he listens! He actually wants to hear us out. He not only desires to have those crazy conversations with us, it's part of what he created us for! He understands that when we are comfortable telling him "our way" of doing things, that it's part of building a relationship with him. He knows that when he listens and really hears us, we are more likely to call out to him in the future.
My current memory verse is Psalm 166:1&2 which says, "I love the LORD, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live." I have been trying memorize these verses this last week but they didn't really hit home until I saw them in light of our...ummm...epsisod...with Emily.
So all this to remind myself (and maybe you) that when you call out to God HE HEARS YOU! Does he still want us to do things his way...aaa, yeah! But in his mercy, he turns his ear to us and simply listens. He totally understands our need to be heard. He loves us enough to have mercy on us and listen to us...isn't he amazing?!!!
