I have the privilege of introducing my friend, Paula, a prolific author and playwright.
Paula K. Parker is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated, award-winning, best-selling, and internationally acclaimed author and playwright; a magazine, entertainment, devotional, and curriculum writer; and a corporate copywriter. She lives near Nashville, Tennessee, with her writer husband Mike, who is also a professional actor.
When not writing, Paula spends her days hanging with Mike and their expanding family; being actively involved in their church; restoring their vintage home and gardens; learning Italian; and playing the harp.
Make sure you scroll down to the end to learn more about her novel, If I Perish: A Queen’s Sacrifice. The cover is absolutely gorgeous!
The Power of Quiet
For most people, days are noise-filled. From the blaring alarm clock to the morning routine amid the clamor of reminders, shopping lists, and queries as to the location of homework or socks, a co-worker’s request, the prattle of a salesperson, traffic noise, mealtime chatter, or the television’s din. Noise assails us up to the moment fatigue persuades our caffeine-driven brains to sleep.
“But that’s life,” some state. “I’m taking care of business.” “I’m providing for my family.” “That’s what being a good parent/spouse/friend is all about.” “What’s a little noise? I can tune it out.”
Yes, we can tune out noise, and when it’s important, we announce, “Be quiet! I need to listen.”
The problem is our need to listen is greater than we think. In every relationship, there is the need for abundant time to be alone with, to quietly listen to, and focus on the other person. To hear not just their words, but their heart.
The intimacy marriage requires does not flourish in pandemonium. Only the strength gained in real heart-touching, friendship-developing, life-long committed love comes when a couple shuts out the world, tunes into each other, and listens.
Parents need to learn to listen to their children. Children are experts at making their demands known, frequently at high volume. But responding to their snack/toy/play requests is not true listening. Children do not know how to tell you what is really in their hearts. Parents must learn to listen intuitively to what their children are truly saying.
Age does not help; most teens have trouble communicating. Many sibling arguments, broken friendships, or strained parent/teen relationships stem from misunderstanding. Teens long to be able to share problems, fears, needs, ideas, desires, and dreams. They long to be heard.
This kind of listening doesn’t come easy. It requires work. It requires grace. It requires prayer.
When it comes to our personal relationship with God, there is a glut of information on developing a productive quiet time. Many churches are filled with high-energy songs and endless programs, all for the purpose of preaching the Gospel, furthering the Kingdom, and growing in the Lord. While all of these are worthy endeavors, do these religious aerobics really help develop an intimate relationship with a loving Father?
Love. True intimacy cannot develop where there isn’t love. Love cannot develop where there isn’t trust. You cannot trust someone you don’t know. And you don’t really get to know someone in the midst of perpetual cacophony.
It is mysterious indeed that our Sovereign Lord speaks the deep things of the Spirit when we are quiet and still before Him.
The prophet Elijah found God in the “still small voice,” (I Kings 19:12,13). God promised to speak to us through a voice in our ear, saying, “This is the way, walk therein,” (Isaiah 30:21). When the children of Israel cried out for deliverance from the approaching Egyptians, Moses instructed them to, “stand still and see the salvation of the Lord,” (Exodus 14:13). Many times, our relief only comes when we stop and get out of God’s way.
I began to understand this when my children were young. Early each morning, one would wake and come looking for me. Without a word, they would climb onto my lap and, with a quiet sigh, lay their head against my chest. Wrapping my arms around them, I would breathe deeply of their baby-sweet scent, feel their warmth, and know a fullness so complete it brought tears. I knew energy would soon empower their limbs, but for a brief eternity, we shared an intimacy of deep, quiet love.
Zephaniah 3:17 says, “The Lord your God is with you…He will quiet you with His love. He will rejoice over you with singing.”
We must seek the quiet of God’s love. We must not be afraid to listen to Him. My children were never afraid of what I would say to them during our morning “snuggle-times.” Later in the day, I might have to reprimand them, but never during those precious quiet times. And when correction came, the intimacy of our moments together strengthened the love that underlined any discipline.
IF I PERISH: A Queen’s Sacrifice
A bold new retelling of the Story of Esther.
She was an orphan. She was an outcast.
She was the queen of the most powerful empire the world had ever seen. And she was born…for such a time as this.
Lovely article! And the cover IS gorgeous!
Thanks so much, Paula, for sharing such a needed post!