Sunday, October 31, 2010

Learned Something Today

So a few weeks ago, I was getting irritated with how many times I had to repeat my instructions to my almost-9-year-old. Once I had his attention, I tried to calmly explain that he needs to try to listen a little better. He then said, "I know, mom talked to me about this. I tune you guys out and can't hear you, so I need to be careful about that." And so I left it at that. He definitely didn't need the same lecture twice.

Today in Sunday School, I taught a lesson about service. One of the things we talked about in the class was what we can do to be ready to help people and provide service. One of the most important things we can do is to be in tune to promptings from our Heavenly Father, so He can tell us what others need help with.

It dawned on me today during my lesson that we as people do the same thing we've been working on with my son. How many times does the Lord try to get our attention, only to find that we've tuned Him out and we only listen when it's convenient, or good timing. I can definitely do better about about responding when He calls on me for something.

It kind of made me wonder if He goes through the same frustrations with us as we do with our kids. He loves us and wants the best for us, but we so often get in the way of Him giving us blessings or teaching us the lessons that we need to be prepared for life.

Something to think about anyway.

2 comments:

Tiffany McAlister said...

I'm a pretty bad listener, pretty much all the time. (I have some crazy-good "Tuning Out" skills!) Great point, though. I'll probably steal it for one of my RS Lessons!

Teachinfourth said...

I feel that I repeat the same things four or five times to my students...