Motivational Speech? Nope! What Fasting my Words Taught Me.

Fasting for two days is difficult- for me anyway! I love food, and a fast never goes by fast. 

But God did not tell me to fast my favorite foods, or even coffee; which might have killed me, I am just sayin’.

Nope. He told me to fast my words.

As a woman, I talk an average amount, maybe more than average… and not talking for two days was much more difficult than I thought. Playing a perpetual game of charades for 48 hours is not as fun as it sounds.

There were very funny moments trying to mime certain things to my girls and them asking me “What is it Lassie? Did Timmy fall down the well?”

The funniest thing was people’s reaction in public. Knowing just a little bit of ASL (American Sign Language) and typing out requests or questions on my cell phone for store clerks to read caused quite a stir. People’s faces and body language changed. Some people got louder. Some people looked at me like I had three heads. I wasn’t handicapped in any way, just communicating in a different way.

So here are three things I learned from fasting my words.

First: My body language is communicating so much more than I thought.

My husband took a wrong turn coming home from the beach. Since I usually give the directions, he got very upset when I was “telling” him he had made a mistake, because he said I was acting like it was a bigger deal than it was. My body language was all he had to go by, so what he “heard” was me yelling, even though I had not said a word.

Even when you don’t talk, you mind is still trucking along at full speed. 

Being quiet in the physical did not slow me down mentally; it actually did the opposite for me: my thoughts seemed to race. Stuck in my own head, I had paid very close attention to what I was thinking, how I was thinking. It made me realize that I gave too much focus to unfruitful and sometimes even harmful- thoughts: much more than I should.

So the second thing I learned is that I must pay attention!

48 hours of silence made me realize that there is a battlefield I am not even fully engaged on: the battlefield of my thought life. Taking every thought captive that exalts itself against God is a battle. When we allow our thoughts to encroach into God territory, coming in direct conflict with what He says about an issue, then we lose. Often, we are not even aware the trespassing is going on, because we are not paying attention.

The third thing I learned is this: Our words have power. Life and death are in the power of the tongue.

With our words we can insight riots or inspire change. With our words we can tear down, or we can build up. With our words we can plant seeds or we can pluck them up. Our words can and do set the course of our lives.

So now, as I reflect back on my two days of silence I know I will remember these lessons and I am sure there will be more lessons to come.

Questions: Have you ever had an unusual fast? Can you share a story about a time when you know words moved you to either a positive or a negative action? Please comment below.

Turn Down that Noise!

Photo Credit: Creative Commons

I am loud. Megaphone Loud! 

Ask anyone that knows me. I don’t need a microphone to talk to an audience of less than fifty.

I once got asked how much I got paid to be the laugh track for the church I attended, because during a service, if the pastor was funny, I was sure to laugh: so loudly it would end up on the recording of the message. 

(For the record I never got paid, though perhaps I should look into that as a viable option of income generation since I am unemployed….LOL) 

So if you have been around me for any length of time, chances are you have told me to shush or heard someone else say shush to me. It is like I have a volume control knob that is broken. If I get excited, the volume goes up. If I get upset, the volume goes up. 

In some ways I have harnessed the volume. For the longest time I was a “yeller” when I disciplined my kids, and that never really got me anywhere with them. 

The noise was like a wall, with them on one side and me on the other: going nowhere, banging our heads and our hearts until we were bruised from the effort. Yelling kept me from parenting my kids and it kept them from hearing me. 

One day, instead of yelling, I began whispering to them when I was angry. It made my kids stand still, shocked, and riveted to every word. Because I was quieter, they had to listen with purpose to what I had to say. I continue to do it now, and they are teens. 

Once I was sharing this with a friend who was having some issues with her daughter, and my oldest, Sarah, happened to be with us. She shared with this mother the reason it worked so well, 

“When mom stopped yelling, she started hearing us and we began to see her. It scared me at first, because it was so different, but now I am used to it.” 

Does this mean my kids always listen to me? Not at all: they are kids after all! But this is taught me something about God and about me. 

I will never be an understated, low-key kind of person. God did not make me that way. I can however, be quiet. I can be still. God has been talking to me for a long time. He is talking to you too. He talks in whispers, but so often we are so noisy we cannot hear what He is saying! 

Noise causes miss-communication, mishearing, or even worse, no communication and no hearing. Noise has even been used as a weapon, and a form of torture. The noise of life, the pressures of work, and the stress of raising a family, all of this can be noise. 

Your own voice, like mine, can be noise. What happens if we turn down the volume of all of that, and listened for God? What would we hear? What would change? 

So I am turning down the volume of my life for the next two days. I am fasting my words. 

No talking, no singing, no noise from my mouth from today until Sunday morning, when I wake. When I want to yell and scream, as I am sure I probably will - I do after all have two teens in this house - I will pray. I will read the Word, and I will get by myself and listen with purpose to God. 

If you know me, you know this is going to be a challenge. I am up for it. 

I know God will use this time to unclog my ears and my heart. I want to be still, amazed at what I hear, riveted to every word. 

Jesus said his sheep know his voice. God said be still and know I am God. Jesus said, he that has an ear, let him hear what God is saying. 

So I am closing my mouth and praying that as God speaks I will hear Him. 

Question: Have you ever done a non-traditional fast before? If so, what did you learn? 

Be blessed and be a blessing and remember that listen is a verb.