Every Friday I’m going to ask a question. The questions I choose might be ambiguous on purpose. The goal is to have you answer the question according to your beliefs, where you’re at in life or a circumstance that might have recently impacted you. The only thing I ask is that you provide an explanation for why you answered the way you did.
It’s my hope to understand you better through this and also to gain a greater understanding of humanity and how people make decisions.
Ch ch ch changes…August is going to be a month about change for your Moving Thoughts Friday questions.
What silence changed you?
*photos by flickr
**Am loving the interaction so far on my new Facebook writer page. Please come join the conversation!
**Am loving the interaction so far on my new Facebook writer page. Please come join the conversation!
Meditation
ReplyDeleteSometimes when I pray I hope for a clear and loud answer. But then, at times, God is quiet. Silent even. He's telling me to be patient and wait on Him.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely the quiet times wrapped up in Jesus's robe. Definitely.
ReplyDeleteThe still, small silence that only comes from God. Wish it came more often!
ReplyDeleteThe silence when I walked into my mother-in-law's house for the first time after her funeral.
ReplyDeleteThe silence that always changes me is the one that rewards me for getting up an hour earlier than everyone else in my house.
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely during the quiet, still winters of my life that I've grown the most. It's comforting when we realize God is holding us, even when we don't hear his voice or feel his presence . . . He is faithful because his Word says He is, even during the bleak, cold, silence. If we keep trusting, God eventually speaks, the sun returns, and we are basking in his warmth again.
ReplyDeleteThe silence when I stood by my beloved mother-in-law's bedside after she drew her final breath. We knew her battle with breast cancer was coming to an end, and I thought I was prepared, but the reality that she was gone hit me hard. The silence was soon broken by my sobs. Pulling myself together enough to gather the rest of the family was so hard.
ReplyDeleteThe silence when I stopped arguing with God ... and listened. And heard the truth. It was a hard truth. But it came wrapped in His grace.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was fourteen my parents moved us from one place to another for six months. I was upset about leaving home because I was just starting to fit in with the popular crowd. I spent six months with basically just my parents-- no friends--traveling around northern California. I would get letters from my cool friends back home, telling me how they were starting to do drugs and other things. Those six months of "silence" were my wake up call. I realized I didn't want to be with those friends anymore. I recommitted my life to God. I think I was saved from a lot of pain because God pulled me away at just the right time. I hated it at the moment, but it was the best thing for me!
ReplyDeleteGreat questions, Wendy!!
Amy
Seeing a glacier with turquoise blue running through it and knowing that only God could have put it there.
ReplyDeleteMy daddy dying when I was ten. Changed me from a carefree little kid to an introspective, often angry person. Sometimes that anger resurfaces, especially when I sense injustice, and I'm still introspective, but I've recovered the carefree, sanguine me. Yes! God is faithful.
ReplyDeleteI was at the Maroon Bells near Aspen, CO. I was in Aspen for family wedding in the month of August, and went sightseeing on my own one afternoon.
ReplyDeleteI took a tour bus and went up to that beautiful spot alone...but, I wasn't alone. I had been led there by God. My being there was no accident.
The stillness of the earth and silence of the sky was deafening as I stood in a valley, near a lake, looking up at the Bells. One of the first light snows of the season had fallen in the higher altitude and the peaks were dusted with a fresh white snow. The valley was green and the Aspen trees were turning gold. God was changing something in me right then. I fought Him on it...but He won. It was only then did the silence disappear - I heard the rush of water from a fast moving stream - I followed up further near the Bells to the sound.
I was led to the Living Water that day.
Several years ago, while still entrapped with some bitterness issues, I drove several hours from my home into a hotel and spent the weekend with God. I journaled a lot during that weekend and found healing and forgiveness.
ReplyDeleteI realized that spending time with God and having a relationship with Him is the path that leads to a changed heart.
Not a cop out here, but silencing myself, i.e. through meditation, and just quieting my mind for the first time really helped me:)
ReplyDeleteWhen I sit in silence after I have prayed and can feel God's presence.
ReplyDeleteWow. Some of these answers are sad and profound. I am afraid I don't have any joy to bring in my answer either. But sometimes the hard things change us for the better.
ReplyDeleteThe silence that changed me was the one that came after I contacted my birth mother for the first time.
It was eventually broken, but it was not the only silent time during that journey, but those weeks and months of wondering and thinking up worse case scenarios drew me closer to God. And He had the victory in the end!
Oh sister, I LOVE this question. Because silence changes us. More powerfully than words a lot of the times, I think.
ReplyDeleteGod's silence when Jesus hung on the cross. That silence changed the world. And it sure as hell (sorry, heck) changed me.
Also....
The silence of waiting for a publishing contract. That silence humbled me, kept me on my knees, and forced me to put my hope in HIM, instead of the publishing industry. That silence strengthened me. It was no fun at the time, but looking back, it was God's grace pouring out.
I think the moment that I found out that my daughter would have major speaking delays. Nonverbal communication changed the way I thought about communicating completely! And through this situation strengthened my communication with God.
ReplyDeleteSilence changed me. Silence from God, waiting for him to answer a prayer--the prayer that I'd get pregnant. I posted about it yesterday over at my blog and I'll post more about this very topic on Monday. That seeming silence, what I took as a lack of response from God, completely changed my life and made me realize my dependence on our Lord. It was a beautiful silence, one I appreciate now.
ReplyDeletePOWERFUL question!
ReplyDeleteFew things have changed me as much as the silences in motherhood. First weeks of wondering if something was really happening were finally answered by those first quiet flutters of movement, then by the silent kicks which come to hurt, and taught me that pain can have value and include love. Pressing my cheek against the nose of a perfectly still and silent infant countless times a day taught me the value of my own quiet. Nineteen years later, few things have the power to bring me to a halt as quickly and surely as a child who enters the room and just sits in silence, waiting to see if I will welcome them into my busy day.
Wendy, this is a thought provoking question. I had to think about when silence has impacted me--there is so little of it in my life.
ReplyDeleteSimilar to Jennifer, I think the silence that changed me was the time of silence when I came to terms with infertility. I had made having children into a god. The Lord used silence and questions to reveal that to me and to bring me to a place of peace in the waiting to see what His plans were for our family. Difficult? Yes. But I learned so much about my Father in that time. I wouldn't trade it.
The silence I get from some people I thought loved me. It tells me the relationships were one way and not mutual.
ReplyDeleteI pray. I forgive. And I move on.