There’s a white board on my kitchen counter… It showed up earlier this week, and on it is written, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. --Phil: 2:3” I asked my youngest about the board because it was obviously her third-grade handwriting that scribed the verse. She told me it was to help her and her sisters remember how best to work together, even when they didn’t want to. Then she asked me, “What was that verse about 'golden apples'?”

I smiled because her question in and of itself reminded me that children listen, even when we don’t realize it. Quite some time back I’d quoted Proverbs 25:11, “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver,” in an effort to help my girls understand that we can use our words to “breathe life” over others, or we can use them to speed “death.” She told me that she thought that verse would be a good one to add to our family scripture board next week.

Like I said, I smiled.

Then, this morning God brought the whole experience into a full-circle for me as I read this verse:

...the Lord has given me the tongue of disciples that I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word. He awakens my ear to listen as a disciple. —Isaiah 50:4

Speaking AND hearing… they go well together, don’t you think? When we surrender control of the words we speak to God, He uses them to sustain the weary… not to burden them further. Even if those words call for a difficult life-change or some sort of a dramatic response, be reminded that Jesus’ burden is light and is always for our good. That’s a word “fitly spoken.”

Perhaps the more challenging part for me (and certainly the piece that was missing): We are called to have the “ear of a disciple,” listening to God’s voice in the same way a student listens to his teacher or a slave to his master.

It reminded me of an old saying about why we have TWO EARS and only ONE MOUTH… so we would LISTEN twice as much as we speak. Honestly, whether we are speaking or listening, the thing that matters is that we do it in a way that reflects our love for God and our commitment to following Jesus.

Blessings,
jph