Last week, I was in the grocery store with my daughter.   We were talking about something and through the course of our conversation, she grew more and more excited until she began screaming.  They were happy screams but still screams.  I told her to stop screaming, and she looked me dead in the eyes and screamed again.

I know that my kids aren’t the only ones who do this- I tell them to stop a behavior and they have to do it that one last time- to see if I really mean it or not.  It’s infuriating. Unfortunately, in our house, this behavior has become a common practice. It happened again after the grocery store incident and I found myself lecturing both of the kids:  “Guys, when I tell you to stop doing something, it doesn’t mean for you to do it one more time just to check if I’m serious or not. Stop means stop right now, not stop after this one last time.”

The words had barely left my mouth and this little voice said to me, “How many times have I told you to stop and you just kept right on?” Ugh, really God?! Using my kids to teach me a lesson??!!!

Sadly, it’s true.  We do it all the time- we know that we shouldn’t do something, but we go ahead and do it anyways.  Maybe it’s something as stupid as going for that 2nd cookie (guilty!). I know that I shouldn’t, but it just tastes soooo good.  Then a week later, when I get on the scale, I am just heartbroken because it’s gone up and I don’t know why.  Or maybe it’s something more serious- You know that you shouldn’t respond like that to your co-worker but you just go ahead and word vomit all over her or him.  And now you can’t take it back.

I pray almost everyday that my kids would learn to hear God’s voice and listen to it.  I have begun to include myself in that as well.  I want to have the discipline to hear it- I want my ears to be tuned to the frequency at which God speaks.  I also need the discipline to listen to it.

1 Thessalonians 5:8 says this, “But let us who live in the light think clearly, protected by the body armor of faith and love and wearing as our helmet the confidence of our salvation.” Think clearly.  Walk in your armor.  Know who you are representing.

2 Thessalonians 3:5 “May the Lord bring you into an ever deeper understanding of the love of God and the endurance that comes from Christ.”

I love that Paul uses the word endurance there.  The only way to gain that ever deeper understanding is to press on with endurance. I pray that we all learn to hear his voice and act on what we hear. ~Shiney