I grew up as an only child. I wanted more than one child so they had brothers and sisters around so that there was always noise around my home while my own children grew up. Not because I didn't enjoy silence growing up myself but because I revel in noise. I enjoy organized chaos. I am a master of multitasking. I was the child who could listen in class to everything the teacher said while I was listening to music, reading a book, looking at a magazine, and checking out the new hairdo of the person sitting in front of me. But if you asked me a question, I could tell you in detail everything that was said or done in that class that day. Organized chaos, I reveled in it. So I am a perfect mom of more than one child. God blessed me with three. He also made me a kindergarten teacher. I revel in that organized chaos also. I can paint handprints, listen to a story of how your dog pooped on your carpet and your mom cleaned it up, acknowledge that one needs to go to the restroom, sharpen a pencil, write down a phone number, and keep paint off of a boutique outfit all at the same time without losing my mind. I like noise. I always have. I am not a quiet person. I recently found out I am hard of hearing in my left ear. I am not surprised because I am such a loud person there must have been a reason. Now I know why. I couldn't hear too good, so I had to be loud enough to hear myself think.
Over the past 9 months I have been doing an experiment in silence. I retired from my teaching job this past year. I wanted to stay home with my children since my oldest was about to go to college. I wanted to spend some extra time with my children. I was happy with that decision. When I came home, I turned the television off. I have not voluntarily turned it on since. It is the best decision I have made in a long time. The Bible says "Be still and know that I am God." I wonder sometimes how often I take time to be still and know that He is God. In all the noise I get lost sometimes and fail to hear God. So I turned some of the noise off. There is nothing worth watching on it anyway. I have not missed it one bit. I have been able to hear so many other things in these 9 months that I would not have heard otherwise. Sometimes the tv is on just for background noise. What in the world?? Why do we need background noise? To drown out our lives? Are we that miserable? I for one am not. I do not need background noise to fill my life. I want to fill my life with important things.
I ran a race in Atlanta a few months ago. A total stranger came up to me and said, "I like your hair!" I said, "Thanks!" After a pause she came back to me again and said, "Do you run with it like that?" I wanted to say, No, I put it in a ponytail when I run. But I didn't give that remark. I politely said, "Yes I do. It is a very heat, humidity, and wind resistant hairdo for me." I thought a lot about this conversation for days afterward. It occurred to me that people nowadays are uncomfortable with silence. We feel we need to fill the air with words. The lady couldn't be content to end the conversation with she liked my hair and that be enough. Because we were still standing there, she continued talking and ended up saying something that was a bit silly. Why are we so uncomfortable with silence?
I challenge us all to take time to crave silence. To enjoy silence. To sit in a room and actually talk to our family without a television on to engage us. It is very freeing. Take out the background noise from your life. We don't need it. All it does is clutter our lives with useless conversation that takes away from more important interaction with people who are important. Be still.
Now that is a point to ponder.
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