Hearing Issues (07/02/2026)

This past week, while my family from Iowa was visiting, I experienced some hearing issues again. Well, actually, that’s not true. You see, my husband and I were sitting in the family room, and my nieces were 20 feet away in the dining area. I was telling my husband about finding a pair of pants I didn’t need to hem which is rare because I am so short. He said something. The girls laughed out loud. I turned to him and asked what he’d said. Then they all laughed. I defended myself, “I am not hard of hearing,” I explained adamantly, “but I don’t always listen well.”

What my husband said was, “Were you shopping in the children’s section?” I truly wish I’d heard it the moment he said it, because it was quite funny. But the moment was also illuminating for us all. For many of us, if we are honest, it isn’t a case of our hearing ability, it really is a case of our listening.

When my husband uttered his response, I had unfortunately already moved on mentally to another issue and another mental space. I am very good at “zoning,” a skill I learned from being in a small school with multiple grades in one classroom. I had to learn how to focus on one thing and ignore everything else going on around me. Old habits are hard to break.

But later, as I pondered my day, I realized that my life skill of focusing isn’t always the culprit in my life when I don’t get it, but not listening is. The LORD and I spoke about that at night prayer that evening as I realized that in life and in prayer, I am so focused on something that I am not listening to the stirrings and promptings of the Spirit. And so, as it happens so often in my life, the LORD got to me cleverly through the events of my life. I am currently working on listening better.

As we make our journey, we are never alone, the LORD is with us and prompting us to be the ones we are created to be, but our conversions, our turnings toward Him and to our right path depend upon our openness to Him, our soul’s listening. It’s an ability we all have, but we must engage it. It’s called free will.

I recall years ago comforting my sister during a difficult time when she asked why the LORD wasn’t with her, comforting her. And I told her about Elijah on the mountain when the LORD came (1 Kings 19). The LORD wasn’t in the violent wind, the earthquake, nor the burning fire. The LORD was present in the whispering sound. We miss the LORD’s voice and presence because we’re expecting earthmoving events, and we aren’t listening for the whisper.

This day, as we go about the lives we’ve been given and the journey home, let us seek to listen for the whispers.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.