This may come as a shock to many of you… But when I was disciplining my children, I would get their attention without speaking a single word!

I would snap my fingers twice, wait till I had their attention, and then point to my nose!

My children knew exactly what that meant! They would looks square at me, their eyes fixed on mine. I would not make a sound or utter a single word until I had their full attention.

Did this happen automatically? Of course not! I did not give birth to two robots. This took time, effort and repetition! But I knew that my words were meaningless until I had their full attention.

When I began to speak my words to them I knew that they were listening. They may have agreed or they may not have agreed with them, but I knew that I had their attention and they were hearing what I had to say.

Our Heavenly Father is no different with His children! He wants our full, complete and undivided attention when he talks to us! 

Our Heavenly Father doesn’t just want us listening partially to Him as we turn on our Bible app and go about our daily business. He wants us to sit still, to listen intentively, and to pay undivided attention to the words from His love letter!

Our loving Father doesn’t want us listening to church online while we finish our morning chores. He wants us to be intentional about listening to His words of wisdom shared through our devices!

Our gracious Father doesn’t desire that we pray to Him only when we are desperate and in trouble. He wants to hear our voices coming to Him with praise, questions and requests when we are joyful, when we are scared, when we are elated, when we are frightened, when we have doubts, when we have hopes, when we falter and when we dream. He wants our prayers to be undivided!

It is far too easy in this crazy world we live in to become divided in our attention, pulled from every angle, and virtually unable to concentrate on any one thing for any length of time!

We click one screen to text a friend, we scroll another to keep updated on the latest news bite, we hit the up arrow on our remote and scan more TV programs than our grandparents ever watched in their lifetime! We open up an email while at the same time minimizing our screen and catching up on the latest trends and styles! We listen to a podcast and hear a liberal opinion and listen to another and hear a conservative one. We drive down the freeway and read more signs and billboards then we do ads flipping through a magazine! Our phones don’t just ring anymore indicating there’s a caller with a real voice on the other end…they chime every time an email comes through, they beep every time a text comes through, and they play a jingle every time our favorite team makes the headlines. And if we don’t pick it up, or answer, or read the latest bit of information we feel like we’ve missed out! 

As the saying goes,“ if you don’t post it, did it really even happen?”

No wonder our attention is so divided!

No wonder life feels crazy and out of control! No wonder we feel like all we need is a break!

Maybe it’s not really a break that we need. Maybe what we really need is to give our full, undivided attention to our Heavenly Father!

Maybe what we need more than anything is to learn to give God our undivided attention.

To not just hear the words, 

“Be still and know that I am God,” from Psalm 46:10, but to actually put them into practice!

To not pick up that phone call, or respond to that email or answer that text. To not use every spare moment that we have scrolling down our Instagram or shuffling through our Facebook! But to truly meditate on the words, 

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge(or listen), to Him and He will direct your paths!” Proverbs 3:5-6

I know it’s easier said than done, but practice does make perfect. One of the ways I’ve found to give God my full attention is to take a road trip. That’s right, you heard me, get into my car all by myself and take a road trip! Or, head out on a trail and walk.

Now of course this means I can’t plug my phone in and start making calls or answering texts or emails. I can’t put in my air-pods and listen to someone else talking. It also means I don’t listen to my favorite podcast! I don’t even turn on the music unless I choose to begin there with some praise music to get me going! I just simply get in my car, or walk down a trail and take a trip, sometimes long sometimes short, and talk to God! 

Then I am still and quiet and I listen. I look out at the gorgeous creation that He made and I just listen. This is one of the ways I have learned to practice giving God my full and undivided attention. I do not know what may work for you, but I do know that He is calling, and His call is one you do want to pick up and answer!

TRUTH BOMB

When God has your undivided attention, chaos ceases, and peace exists!

Speak Truth Love