The Silent Mind

Devotion

3.9.10

The Silent Mind

I Kings 3:9a

“So give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people to discern between good and evil.”

 

Angel sat quietly as she listened to the room full of adults discussing her. They talked as if she wasn’t even in the room and argued about what was right or wrong for her.  She wanted so desperately to shout out and tell them to stop but the words could not find their way to her lips.  She had been born with the inability to communicate like a “so called” normal person and it made her life so full of frustration.  She knew what she wanted to say.  She knew what her needs were.  But no one understood her.  They just all thought they knew what she wanted or needed.  As she sat listening, her ears began to ring from the sounds of their voices escalating into angry yells.  They began pointing fingers and telling each other they were wrong and needed to do things their way.  Round and round they went all the while Angel’s voice of reason remained locked in her silent mind.

 

“Oh if only I could tell them how silly they all look.  If they could only see that their many words say less than the few words I would long to be able to speak.  They argue and fight over what is wrong with me, what I need, or what I want.  They think they know because I cannot tell them.  My lack of ability to communicate with them is nothing compared to their lack of ability to communicate with each other.  How sad it is.  Their minds, their thoughts and ideas, their wants and desires, their joys and their pains, can all be expressed with words, words I cannot speak and yet they use those words to attack and hurt one another.  Ah ha, they are not any better than I am.  I cannot communicate because my mind is locked in silence, they cannot communicate because they choose to silence the voice of one another.  Oh Lord, if only I could speak I would tell them this: Please be careful with the words you say.  Don’t misuse your gift of being able to think and speak.  It is such a precious gift.  You have been given the ability to communicate; can you not do so with an understanding heart for one another and for me?  God will give you the discernment between good and evil so why do you fuss and fight?  Please ask Him to give you an understanding about me, locked in a silent mind unable to tell you my thoughts, my feelings, my hopes and my dreams.  Please do not lock yourselves in a false disability that silences your hearts.  God has made each one of us special, with different abilities and gifts and together we can learn from one another, we can gain new understanding of each other and we can grow wiser because of it.  Oh if only I could speak I would tell them to stop fussing and fighting and start listening and understanding.  If only my silent mind was not silenced by lips unable to speak.”  A tear fell from Angel’s eye as she placed her hands over her ears blocking out the sounds around her. But then a ray of hope shined on her face and her silent mind quieted as her mother walked into the room. Suddenly the loud noise of angry voices was lost in the soft and gentle sound of her mother’s voice.

 

“Angel is my child and I know what is best for her. She needs a sense of security, peace, and understanding, just like you and me. Something you have all failed to see.”  With those words she walked over to Angle, embraced her and said, “Come my child, let’s go home.”   Angel’s voice had been heard and God’s discernment had been revealed.

 

Our Heavenly Father stands in the room with us to quiet the angry sounds of the world that often surround us.  He speaks for us and He knows our needs and our wants.  He calls us His child and will defend us when no one else will.

 

So let us all pray to have understanding hearts that can rightly judge good and evil and not silence the voice of our God who has so much to tell us if we will only listen.