Prayer:  Lord, guard my ears from things that would negatively affect my spirit today. Help me to tune out all the hatred, anger, gossip and violence that may exist around me. Teach me to be a selective listener, Lord.

Affirmation:  I can choose those things I want to let into my spirit. I can, and will, be a selective listener.

Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. Psalm 63:7

He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and your rampart. Psalm 91:4

My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. Psalm 121:2

What goes into a mind comes out in a life. Our ears are a portal to our minds and our hearts. We have the power to choose what we will let into our minds, what we are willing to listen to through the voices of others, through our televisions, through our radios, through the books we read, the games we play, through the internet, the company we keep…

“We forget that every good that is worth possessing must be paid for in strokes of daily effort. We postpone and postpone until these smiling possibilities are dead. By neglecting the necessary concrete labor, by sparing ourselves the little daily tax, we are positively digging the graves of our higher possibilities.” William James

“Life’s supreme adventure is the adventure of living. Life’s greatest achievement is the continual remaking of yourself so that at last you do know how to live.” Winfred Rhoades

I love the words of William James: “Every good that is worth possessing must be paid for in strokes of daily effort”…isn’t it true that in order to live a good life, an honorable life, a life worthy of our calling, a life that feels accomplished at the end of our days…we must work at it…daily?

 Daily choices.

Daily disciplines.

Then there are the beautiful words of Winfred Rhoades, “Life’s greatest achievement is the continual remaking of yourself so that at last you know how to live.” Everything we do takes practice. It takes practice to tune out hatred, anger, gossip, violence….the ugliness of the world, and quiet ourselves, coming face to face with our Creator, in the silence of our souls. We should continually work at remaking ourselves because growing requires remaking….”so that at last you know how to live“…

Life is hard. We all have pieces we want to leave behind. Sometimes we have been so abused and misused as children, children parenting parents, children without parents, children parenting children…that the child inside of us stays inside of us…we reach a halfway point of spiritual and emotional maturity and never rise above. As life goes by, we realize that the wounded child inside has never let go….

The wounded child who heard ugly things.

The wounded child who listened to voices that told her it wasn’t safe to dream.

The wounded child that put up barriers to stay safe…the one who never learned how to live. However, God says, there is a safe place in the shadow of His wings. “He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge”…

Recently, I saw a photograph of a little girl in an Iraqi orphanage. She missed her mother so much that she drew a large chalk picture of her on the sidewalk, took off her shoes and curled up in the fetal position inside of the chalk image.

We can do this too, with God. We can let the little girl inside of us…the one who never left…the one who heard too many things…curl up in the fetal position and let the Maker of the Universe shelter her under his wings.

As we grow and learn how to live, let us pray that God would protect our spirit. Let us pray that we will become selective listeners.

My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. Psalm 121:2