To Know You Better

Posted on March 24, 2007
Filed Under Spirituality, Life |

My husband is going to Paris . . . on business. (Why yes, I am just a little bitter about it!) We had the privilege, through the generosity of my mother-in-love, to go a few years back and had a delightful experience that I’d, frankly, love to have again. Not this time.

As my husband is preparing for his upcoming trip, he’s been practicing a few key phrases with our youngest son who is currently in his second year of French in high school. I’ve also heard strange voices coming from his office and through his computer as he visit sites learning how to pronounce words that are utterly foreign to him. “You really want to know it, huh?” I ask. He nods yes. “But you don’t practice, huh . . .” He shook his head no. I’m like that with Spanish. I know enough to charm myself around Peru (I think the locals just placate me with conversation because they think it’s cute that I try) and order from a menu in Mexico, but that’s about it. But in school, I was really good. And, if I had just practiced, who knows, I could have even been fluent. If I had just practiced.

That’s true of any “language” I want to speak and understand. I’ve often struggled, and still do sometimes, with how to discern God’s voice, His language above all others, including my own. The truth is, I can’t unless I practice it, study it, read it, repeat it. I often wonder what God would say. Well, He speaks a lot in the Bible . . . I wonder what God would do. Well, he shows His character a lot through the Bible . . . If I’d familiarize myself with Him there then in those times that He decides to burst off those pages and into my daily experiences I’d be able to recognize Him more readily.

I want to, more consistently, practice God. His language, His temperment, His character, His tendencies, and His motives. I want to know Him in the Biblical sense, forgive the pun. I don’t want a crash course, complete with the anxiety of knowing you’ll never learn in a week what takes years, that my hubby is having right now. How do you say, where’s the bathroom?

Jesus said in John, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” Well, I certainly want to know His voice . . . and speak His language.

Peace and Blessings,

Nicole Walters