Listening
Storks, doves, swallows,
and thrushes
all know when it’s time
to fly away for the winter
and when to come back.
But you, my people,
don’t know what I demand. ~
Jeremiah 8:7 (CEV)
So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it. ~ Hebrews 2:1 (NLT)
Lord, I think that I'm the most inattentive person in your family. I have very selective hearing and I tend to hear only things that are easy. I conveniently ignore the things I don't feel like doing. It's not that I'm trying to be bad. I'm just immature. Don't give up on me and I promise I won't give up on growing into a person who carefully listens to you. As we prepare for 2016 my goal is that I would become a careful listener. Amen.
TRANSLATIONS
ABP = Authorized Boydston Paraphrase — my own freestyle biblical adaptation — somewhere between paraphrase, commentary, and sermon
CEB = Common English Bible (©2011, the Common English Bible)
CEV = Contemporary English Version (©1995, American Bible Society)
MSG = The Message (©1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson)
NIRV = New International Reader's Version (©1996, 1998, Biblica)
NIV = New International Version (©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011, Biblica)
NLT = New Living Translation (©1996, 2004, 2007, 2013, Tyndale House Foundation)
