My life as a mute

My life as a mute

Ok, so all last year we had no health insurance and God was sooo faithful. He protected us fully and we had not a sniffle. It was amazing to be under that kind of protection! It's so cool to have my Father be the Creator and ruler of the universe!

Now that I have my job back with benefits I think our extra provision has been lifted since we're OK to face life's bumps and bruises once again. :) Dennis has injured his ankle twice and I was hit with a nasty virus last week. Sore throat, cough, and laryngitis. The doc told me I was not allowed to talk until the laryngitis passed to protect my vocal folds from getting nodules...So I was mute for 3 days! I didn't say a single word from 1:30pm Friday til Monday! It was definitely a challenge! I used a lot of sign language and this little dry erase borard I acquired while working at University Hospital.

Far be it from God to allow his children to suffer without a higher purpose...Being speechless turned out to be really interesting!...I had to do a whole lot more listening and I got to do a lot of observing. I also had to think about what was worth "saying" and what could be kept to myself so that I wasn't playing charades or writing novels on the dry erase board. That alone kept me focused on what was really important.

Case in point, at dinner with Den's family last Sunday, the others got into a tense discussion about something...I knew whose "side" I would have taken had I been able to talk and I had plenty to say...But I just listened, taking all of it in. At one point Lori looked at me and said, "you have so much you'd like to say don;t you?" I smiled amd shrugged. She laughed and said "It's probably best kept to yourself anyway, huh?". And she was right. Me flapping my gums and adding my 2 cents would have made no difference to anything in that conversation...It just would have made me feel good for exercising my opinion muscle (which gets plenty of exercise!) How many times have I wasted the breath that God gave me on pointlessness?

This isn't to say that gabbing is bad or speaking my mind is evil. I don't believe we should all live daily in Monk-like silence. But truly I see how much better spent my brain's language center and my voice could be if I'd practice being quick to listen and slow to speak.

I think I might try this "mute" strategy if ever I feel like I am out of balance in this area. Or maybe I should use it in general when I talk to to anyone?? Who knows...It's worth trying!

Oh! And God is so funny...I went to worship last Saturday thinking how hard it would be to not sing and praise like I usually do...Well, it turned out that the worship leader had also been given orders not to sing because he had damaged his voice. He talked about how hard it would be to stand up there playing his guitar but not singing. But he said he would instead focus on listening to the words and really letting the messages in the songs fill his heart. And he said "if there is anyone else here tonight who isn't able to sing or doesn't like to sing, I invite you to do the same"...I mean, what are the chances?? God rocks!

Today I woke up with pink eye...But I am not sure I am ready to be thrust into the world of the blind so hopefully it will clear up soon!!

Helen