Thankful Challenge Day #11
I am thankful for communication.
Looking back on my life, it is amazing how communications have changed.
There was a lady who lived on one corner of our block who made coffee every afternoon and invited all the woman in the neighborhood to come sit in her kitchen and share a cup of coffee and conversation. When she had things prepared, she opened her back door and in this singing sort of yell, called out "Cawwwwwfeeeeeeee!!" In a few minutes, women from all over the neighborhood were walking to her house.
Communication. The coffee was ready. but the coffee was just an excuse to have a small hen party and communicate about life.
When I was a teenager, citizens band radios were found in a majority of vehicles.
"Breaker, breaker 19...what's the smokey report?"
"Skip-land, skip-land...."
CB radio communication, whether local, or radio waves skipping across continents, was a way of communicating.
Telephones have dramatically changed. When I was a kid, we shared a phone line with most everyone on the block. Not everyone had a telephone, and only wealthy people had one they didn't share with others. (The conversation over coffee at the neighbor's house was made rich with everyone wanting to know more about what they did NOT get to hear while they were eavesdropping on the phone....like everyone didn't know they had been listening!!)
Telephone now are almost attached to our hands. Well, mine is now strapped around my wrist, so....
We all have our own little device, a telephone and tiny computer that will do all sorts of things. Need directions? Or information? Or weather report? You got it.
It seems the more communication we have, the less we are able to communicate in some ways. People text from the other room rather than speak face to face. Voice inflection is absent, often leaving words open for interpretation.
But still, I am thankful for communication. When the miles separate us, we can look at each other's face and hear their voice. IF we just choose to do so.
On this Veteran's Day weekend, I think about what that would have meant to family. It would be priceless to me.
I am most thankful for the communication we are offered to participate in with God. Scripture calls it prayer.
As in all true communication, it's not a one way street. We are encouraged and invited to speak with our Creator God. But prayer is not a dictating to God what we want. It is a conversation that includes listening, and very often waiting.
On the receiving, listening end of our prayers, if we are honest with ourselves before God, we may find out some things about our requests that need altering. We may be praying with the wrong motive. "....asking for what you have no right to. You're spoiled children, each wanting your own way. You're cheating on God. If all you want is your own way, flirting with the world every chance you get, you end up enemies of God and his way."(James 4:3-4 from The Message)
Of all the little I have learned about praying to my Creator God, I am thankful that I can tell Him like it is with me, not trying to fake it til I make it, or hide behind my own fig leaves. I am encouraged to "...be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." (Philippians 4:6 NASB)
Yes. I am thankful for all the methods of communication available to us. Writing this kind of post, cell phones, video calls, old fashioned cards and letters, mass media, news outlets, and on and on...
But I am most thankful for the opened curtain that allows me to step into the throne room of God, and pour out my concerns, my hurts, my hopes, my regrets, and a thousand other things He listens to me about. Over and over.
Thank You Lord Jesus for listening. And caring. And answering.
In your own time, in your own way. It is always best.
