God's Still Small Voice

Pardon my absence! I've been neglecting everything else in my life so I could work in the garden. I'm excited to say that, with the help of my sister, it's all in and mulched (ok, I have a little bit more to mulch, but it's basically finished). Does anybody NOT love this time of year? Yesterday my kids ate our first red strawberry and today there's a gentle thunderstorm outside; giving me a break from the garden, giving the garden a nice drink, giving my husband an excuse to skip yard work and putz in the garage, and giving my kids some wet fun outside. Besides sunny days in the hammock, this is the best kind of summer day.

I have to share an unfortunate event that just happened though. We lost a couple chickens this past week to predators. We live quite a way from the nearest wooded area so we've never had a problem with raccoons and such, but this last week we lost one chicken one night and one chick the next. (Sad face).

One night I went outside to close the girls in—they had been free ranging that day—and I had a feeling that I needed to slide their sliding back door closed, in addition to the fence gate and front door to the coop. I hesitated, though, siting to myself that we've never had a problem with predators before. Why worry? And I didn't close the small sliding door. The next morning my son discovered that our broody hen had been killed. I felt horrible! I thought I should've closed the back door, and I didn't. I had to admit to the children that day that I had ignored God's still small voice, and it resulted in a dead chicken.

Have you ever heard God's still small voice? Have you ever felt a prick in your spirit or a gentle nudge or reminder to do something? If you feel like it's a god guiding you, or the universe enlightening you, let me encourage you to consider the idea that it's the God of the universe. The Creator of all things, the Creator of you, knows what has happened and what will happen. Even more amazing than that is the fact that God loves us unconditionally and He only wants the very best for us! And because of those two facts, God doesn't sit back and watch the world happen, He steps down and interacts in it for our benefit. He nudges, He guides, He whispers quietly to our inner-most parts, 

“you better do this”, 

“check on that”, 

“call her”, 

“did you turn the iron off before leaving for church?” 

(ok, maybe this last one's paranoia, but you know what I mean).

God wants to protect us and those we love, but His voice is still and small. In order to hear it we must be tuned in, listening, and still ourselves.