by Tammy Phillips
February 28, 2021
“Understand this, my beloved brothers and sisters. Let everyone be quick to hear [be a careful, thoughtful listener], slow to speak [a speaker of carefully chosen words and], slow to anger [patient, reflective, forgiving];”. James 1:19 AMP
Once I asked our son to take out the garbage, including some broken down boxes on the garage floor. I had broken them down for easier disposal. I had left two full boxes on a cooler sitting near the garbage. One box contained some glass pieces for my sister-in-law and the other a nativity. I had just purchased a greatly discounted Kalalou Nativity set from one of my favorite stores, Grace251 in Dalton, GA. I had not put it in its proper place.
I know what happened. Parker heard me, but he was in a hurry to take trash off before heading to work. He attempted to be thorough and take off all the trash, but he had not paid close attention to what I had said. Both of the boxes that I had set aside ended up in the crusher at our recycling center.
Sadly, he was not quick to listen on that day. I was no better because I was not slow to speak nor slow to anger when I realized what had happened.
How many times have we heard, Proverbs 4:20? “My son, pay attention to my words! Open your ears to my sayings!” How many times has God tried to get our attention? How many times has what God intended for us, ended up in the recycling bin of our lives because we did not pay attention?
I enCOURAGE you to be quick to hear. I enCOURAGE you to pay attention to what God and others say. I think you would agree. We do not want our blessings to end up being trashed. (To be continued)
