​Understand this, my beloved brothers and sisters. Let everyone be quick to hear [be a careful, thoughtful listener], slow to speak [a speaker of carefully chosen words and], slow to anger [patient, reflective, forgiving] Amplified Bible
 
I saw a quote this week from phenomenal African-American poet Ms. Nikki Giovanni commending us to be responsible listeners. Her words line up with the word of God in James 1:19 which tells us to be quick to listen, slow to speak and even slower to get angry.
Unfortunately listening has become a skill that most of us never develop. Being quick to listen and being responsible for doing so is an activity that requires our senses to be fully in gear. We have to be able to interpret what we heard through our ears as well as our eyes. We have to be able to get an understanding by properly interpreting what we heard.
Our getting an understanding is often blocked or colored by the experiences of our soul (mind, emotions, choices—past and present, and sometimes generational)
As an example when my sister Dr. Faye and I became teenagers, my Mother would insist on us going to the bank with her. We would always be struck immediately by the casualness of young white female bank tellers who would address Ma as Sarah. It was as if they were on a first name basis with her and had chosen not to give her the respect due an elder by ‘putting a handle on her name.’
Their casualness infuriated both my sister and I but the mere forming of a response on our lips made Ma quickly give us a chastening look and put a finger to her lips as if to say-Hush your mouth.
I don’t recall any discussions afterwards at home or otherwise.
Those bank visits certainly impacted our souls though.
Years later when I was fully engaged in creating theater works I remember writing a chorus line that read “They call us Auntie, girl and gal when they’re not my kin, niece or pal.”
When my sister later on received her Ph.D she set a standard for the handles she would accept as a doctor of Linguistics in person or via E-mail.
She insisted on being called Dr. Faye and when I came to work for her at One East Palo Alto she made sure that folks called her then newly ordained baby sister, Reverend.
Even now I still shudder when kids I taught years upon years ago refer to me now by my first name rather than the handle that has been bestowed on me—Reverend or Pastor. That kind of casualness always throws me for a loop.
I said all that to say that our listening can indeed be deafened by a mere word or a lack of a word from the mouth of the speaker. Sometimes words can be triggers that can produce flashbacks to another place and time.
In any event the call to be a responsible listener is most timely. We all should check ourselves long before we wreck ourselves—check ourselves before we leap to an inappropriate conclusion.
Time is winding up and we who are grown, really grown  must lead the way. We must respond wisely and habitually and invite the Holy Spirit to assist us in properly receiving and interpreting what we hear and how we respond.
As a final note, if you hath not the Holy Spirit in your life I encourage you to get into a relationship with Jesus Christ, the one who died and rose from the grave for your sake and mine. The Holy Spirit comes with the package of making Jesus Lord and Savior of your life.
Amen and amen.
 

Monday's Heart Cry: My Song of Submission 2023 
"You take the reins Lord;
Provide from your supply.
I'll lean on you with hands lifted high.
I trust You with all of my heart.
I'll be me and You be Lord."
Copyright Soul Shaping Publications, June 2023

I am always amazed and simultaneously grateful that my God can always love me right where I live and move me to the place He wants me to be. He is an on time God to say the least.
I penned the song above at His unction because He knew I needed to step back and let Him be God. It has been a challenging summer and I don't mind admitting that on occasion I forget that the battle is not mine but the Lord's.
There is a reel on Instagram where the dad is holding and moving the hula hoop while his two year old daughter is doing all the steps and moves she sees the other hoopers doing. It is hilarious but so true to life.
Our heavenly Father is always on the scene and in control but we often look around and take our cues from those around us rather than from Him who is Lord of all.
Our leaning on Him with hands lifted up blesses Him but equally important occupies us so we won't be able to grab those reins and try to drive our own lives.
May you be encouraged this season to leave all the driving to Him. He knows the way we should take. In fact, HE IS THE WAY! (LOL)
{Meditate on 2 Chronicles 20:15; Proverbs 3: 5-6; Isaiah 30:21; John 14:6}

Dear Lord, I hardly know where to begin. I only know that even though the tears may flow, this letter is long overdue. From the moment I said I surrender all, on my knees that Monday night over thirty years ago it has been a glorious ride with you. You have loved me beyond measure, loved me even when I had no idea how to love my self. I knew how to hurt myself but I had no idea how to love or how to be loved. I was so lost when you rescued me I can hardly explain it. I remember being broken into pieces that were scattered all over every town I ever lived in but you didn’t care how big a job it would be to put me back together. You just said come to me and when I said YES my life changed forever. I think we take that word unconditional far too lightly. Nobody in their right mind loves like you do.

This has got to be the one area that I feel so inadequate in, yet I hear myself repeatedly saying like Paul—your grace is sufficient for me…when I am weak you are strong. It is uncanny and so like you that your grace is so saturated in your love that it is hard to wrap my mind around it. And what’s more there is an endless supply of it. I completely understand now why you said nothing can separate me from your love. Your gracious love, your grace saturated love is with me anywhere and everywhere I go and it never ever runs out.

I am so in love with you Lord. Who could have thought that somebody like me could wakeup on a Tuesday morning and find myself on a pathway strewn with nothing but your loving kindness and your tender mercy. And even in the hard times when I would have the audacity to choose my way over yours, you never ever ever gave up on me. I know that that is love.
Even all these many years later I am yet blown away by your endless, unfailing, limitless love for me. Your nurturing, your patience your well timed correction. Amazing. Your growing and grooming me for such a time as this. You kept me and you poured into me and you persuaded me that I was worthy of being kept. You have drawn closer to me with every storm and have allowed me to see just how awesome it is to be completed by you whenever there is a shortfall. I don’t have to beg or perform, you just make yourself available.
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I am so grateful that I have learned to let you have your way in loving me. Thank you for your love to date and the way you will love me in years to come. Thank you for giving your all to me so I would be able to give my all to others. Thank you that I haven’t seen anything yet and the best is yet to come.
Your daughter.  Teirrah McNair
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