Eyes, Ears and Hearts


 

Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one, the Lord is one. Love the Lord with all your heart and with all our soul and with all your strength. Deuteronomy 6:4-5

I work in an elementary school where I am blessed to know a young woman named Shelley. Shelley is precious. She has a sweet, infectious spirit and her smile lights up a room. Even when she seems frazzled there is something about her that suggests joy. Her personality is very positive. She is the kind of person you want around when you need comfort or encouragement.

Whenever Shelley is attempting to get the children to focus on her she says, “All eyes, ears and hearts on me.” I love that. It is a gentle and loving way to say, “Focus people!” Her gentle, charming method works. The chatter stops and the children put their eyes and ears, so one supposes, their hearts as well, on Miss Shelley.

The other day while at an assembly I noticed that she changed her directive a little bit and I missed, “eyes, ears and hearts.” Later while reading Scripture I thought of her again. Isn't that what Moses was saying to the Israelites and later what Jesus was saying to His disciples in Luke 10:27?

“Love the Lord with all your heart.” How do we do that? By keeping Jesus as our central focus. If our eyes, ears and hearts are on our Lord, truly concentrated on Him, the distractions may have less power. I doubt very much there will be less distractions. In fact, I think the distractions increase when we determine to keep our eyes fixed on our Savior.

Look at Peter, (Matthew 14:25-31) he was all set to walk across the lake until he took his eyes off of Jesus. Then he sank. The wind and the waves distracted him as the proverbial wind and waves can distract us.

I love the Shema, the words from Deuteronomy. I love, love, love to come across them unexpectedly and to hear them quoted. They are strong powerful words. The truth behind them is the truth that guides my life. I am thankful for Shelley, for the reminder she brings me in the middle of a hectic work day. When I hear her, I can picture Jesus, with a broad inviting smile, the kind He graciously gave Shelley and I can hear Him say, “All eyes, ears and hearts on me.”

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Applause, Applause and Protection

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, Hebrews 12:1 Reading some Scripture this morning I was reminded of a message that I watched from Louie Giglio. In it Louie described a child of God leaving her home for the day. He goes on about how the heavenly beings see it. With great excitement, he tells of the joy and applause going on in heaven as the woman gets in the elevator, gets to the parking lot and gets in her car. It’s hilarious and over the top, (remember I did say it was Louie Giglio!) but there’s a great lesson in it. My husband and I were watching a TV show about a fictional former president. At one point the poor man is just over the Secret Service detail. He’s tired of them following him around so he fires them. It takes less than five minutes for him to start to see all that they’ve been doing for...
Read more

My Father Saw That

She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me, “for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” Genesis 16:13 There’s a movie from several years ago that I absolutely love! It’s called “The American President.” The premise is that the president, who is a widower, has begun to date. He’s dating a lovely woman while running for reelection. His opponent is awful. He knows he doesn’t have much of a chance against the popular incumbent so he tries to make a mountain out of the molehill of the standing president’s romance. At one point there is a news clip that shows the woman in a protest during her college days. After the clip plays the opponent refers to the president’s lady friend as “the president’s whore.” She groans and says to the president “My father saw that!” She is devastated, not because what is being said is true but because her father, who she loves and respects, saw the clip and heard those words spoken about her. I thought of ...
Read more

Not Really god, where are you?

Then they called on the name of Baal from morning to noon.”Baal answer us!” they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made. At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said, “Surely he is a god! Perhaps his is deep in thought, or busy or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” 1 Kings 18:26b-27 Those who know me would be quick to tell you that I am a bit sarcastic. It’s a quality that I have passed on to my children and even some of my grandchildren. Some days I feel a little guilty. Is that really a quality that God wants to see in me? Certainly that cannot be my go to attitude but there are times that it comes in quite nicely. This morning, reading a totally unrelated verse, I was reminded of this account in the first book of Kings. (It begins at verse 16 and continues to the end of the chapter. I highly recommend reading it if you haven’t and it if you have reread it. It’s great!) In this p...
Read more