How God Speaks

Are you ever surprised by who or what God uses to speak to you? I know I am.

One time, I took the day off of work and drove to the Huntington Library in Pasadena, CA. I wanted a solitude day — a little extra time with God.

I was sitting outside in a lush, grassy area, right in front of a little pond. My Bible and my journal were next to me. Suddenly a little humming bird fluttered in and hovered right in front of me over the water. Then, just as quickly as he flew in, he flew out. He did this about three times before I had a bit of a revelation.

As I thought about the brief little visits my new little friend was making, I had to ask myself if that’s how I had been interacting with God. Was I just fluttering quickly into His presence, saying a quick prayer at breakfast and then going about my day? Did I then thank Him for my lunch and leave His presence again? I felt like that’s exactly what I had been doing and He used a humming bird, of all things, to show me that.

Most recently, God has been using my children to speak to me.

My 3-year-old is going through a phase where he will ask me things repeatedly without giving me sufficient time to answer. (I am choosing to believe this is a phase and will not continue for years to come). Since becoming a mommy, my verbal response time has decreased dramatically. I’m sure it has nothing to do with age. Lol.

Finally, one day I said to him, “just because I don’t answer you right away doesn’t mean I didn’t hear you.” As soon as the words left my mouth, I felt like God was speaking them to me. What a good reminder that God always hears me, even if I feel like He’s taking too long to answer, and I need to be patient (just as I want my 3-year-old to be).

There was another time recently when my 3-year-old and I were playing with Mega Blocks, which are like big Legos, and he couldn’t find the specific block he was looking for. I tried to encourage him to find another one but he was dead set on finding the exact one he wanted.

He was starting to get upset and I could tell the meltdown was only moments away. In an effort to help, I said, “honey, you can be upset about what you don’t have or you can work with what you do have.” There were at least 100 other blocks he could have chosen. Immediately, I felt like God wanted me to hear those words, not just my 3-year-old.

“Suzie, you can be upset about what you don’t have right now, or you can use what I have already given you.”

I’ve been thinking about my kids more lately. Maybe because it’s summertime and I feel like we’re spending more time together, even though I’m a stay-at-home-mom (SAHM) so I already spend quite a deal of time with them. It just seems like we’re doing more activities together right now because of the warm summer weather.

Being a SAHM is by far the most challenging job I’ve ever had. I’m grateful for the opportunity, but let’s just say it keeps me on my toes.

One of the ways I try to stay radiant while being a SAHM, and retain my sanity, is by coming up with fun activities for the kids to do.

We recently made water balloons part of our father’s day festivities and, weather permitting, it might just become a tradition. We filled up 20 of them at a time, (by the way, whoever invented the ones that you can fill up in mass numbers like that is a genius!) grabbed as many as we could hold and while laughing and giggling, ran around the backyard throwing them at one another. It was so much fun!

On nice days, we also like to go for a walk around the block or in the neighborhood. My three-year-old gets out his trusty spray bottle and I bring along a bubble wand. As we walk, I use the bubble wand to make bubbles which then become a target for my three-year-old to shoot at with his spray bottle. He twists the nozzle so that the spray is more of a stream. Then he yells and shouts with glee every time he pops a bubble.

Another thing that keeps my 3-year-old occupied is peeling hard boiled eggs. Who would have thought? He loves to sit at the table and peel the eggs and then after I rinse them, he’ll eat one. It’s a win-win. I don’t have to do it and he’s entertained for 20 minutes and he gets something healthy to eat. Maybe it’s a win-win-win!

One thing both of my kids have enjoyed playing with is the salad spinner. Who needs toys, right? I’ll set it on the floor and they’ll put in the brightly colored magnetic letters from the fridge and spin it around, watching all the colors blur together.

My littlest guy likes to take the salad spinner apart since it comes in three pieces. I think he’s a little engineer in the making.

I also just saw an idea where you can put a coffee filter in the bottom of the salad spinner and use a few drops of washable paint (not too thick) and then put the lid on and spin it around. You end up with a little piece of spin art you can hang up to dry. Though I haven’t tried it yet, I think it would be fun to do with the kids.

All of these things have kept my little guys entertained for virtually zero of the dollars since I already had them around the house.

I would love to hear about the activities you do with your little ones.

I would also love to hear the ways God tends to speak to you. Please share in the comments below.

I hope you are having a wonderful summer. Let us go be radiant this week!