On the first Sunday in Jan. we
attended Fast and Testimony meeting in Groningen. For the first time I understood some of what they
were saying! It felt like a big
breakthrough! I’m sure part of the
reason was because many testimonies have similar phrases and because we have
been studying the “Missionary vocabulary and Phrase” book. It was very exciting!
That said, it has been
frustrating that we still can’t follow the talks/lessons at church. Even though we recognize more words it’s not
enough. Some of the problem is that
everyone speaks so fast the words blur together. I want to yell “langzaam praaten,
alsjeblieft!” (speak slowly,
please!). When people speak slowly we
can understand so much more.
Which brings me to this
realization….learning and understanding a language of any kind requires as much
or more effort in listening as it does in speaking. So we have our learning coach get someone to share
5 min. talks in Dutch on a church subject during our lesson so we can practice
listening. We speak up and ask people to
speak slowly and repeat what they said.
We are working on listening… not just what we want to
say.
Which brought me to another
thought. In the language of prayer, is
listening not the hardest part? Do we
want to pour out our hearts to God without the same effort given to listening? Do we understand what God is saying to us?
Do we understand the language of personal revelation? Instead of “speak slowly, please”, do we want
to say to God, “speak loudly, please!)?
Just as the Dutch are frustrated when we don’t understand, so our Heavenly
Father must be when we don’t listen/understand what He is trying to tell
us. I know that receiving personal revelation
is like learning a language, that we can practice listening, and we can learn
to hear and understand what God has to tell us.
I know that He wants to take us by the hand and guide us through our
mortal journey if we will but learn to listen.
You two are doing great and making such great friends!
ReplyDeleteLove this so much! A truth I am still learning and practicing.
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