Ok, so lately I have been doing a lot of work with kids. This ranges from coaching the junior high golf team, substitute teaching for the elementary kids, helping out at the middle school group and coaching church league soccer teams. I love working with the kids but they can be a humongous pain sometimes. They don’t listen. They are kids so what can you expect. We were all kids at one point. Some of us are still kids but that’s beside the point. No matter what you do they just won’t listen.You raise your voice and they get louder.
You threaten them but they aren’t scared.
You split them up but they’ll find someone else to make trouble with.
You make them run but they don’t care, practice will still be over at 6:30.
You tell them to stop doing something and they listen for about 5 minutes and then start it again.
Kids just don’t listen. That’s why I had to get some advice from a friend. He created The Box. I use this whenever I substitute teach and it works pretty good. Its like a time-out without putting the kids in the corner. I draw a box on the board and obviously title it THE BOX. Any kid that is out of line throughout the class will get their name put in The Box. I then explain that you do not want your name in The Box or you will be dealt with when the teacher gets back. Scary, isn’t it?
Once a kid gets put in The Box, you now have their attention. If they are quiet the rest of class, they will get their name removed from The Box. If they are still being a distraction, their name will remain and they will face the consequences.
Oftentimes in our own lives, we don’t listen. We go through the busyness of our own lives and never stop and listen. How many times have we missed hearing something because we were talking, we were doing something else or we weren’t expecting to have to listen? Our ears weren’t open.
We have three options as we go throughout life.
1. Clear our mind, open our ears and listen to God.
2. Get put in The Box where He will have our attention or Else.
3. Not listen at all; become deaf.
I wouldn't encourage the third option.
It’s not until we actually make Him our primary focus that we can actually hear what He is trying to speak to us. Sometimes I don't listen. I get put in The Box and that’s uncomfortable. It’s no fun to be in time-out.
You can’t play,
You can’t talk,
You can’t live.
When I get put in time-out, it’s a place where it’s just me and God. One on One with Him. He talks and I listen. I can choose to not listen but why would I want to do that? He knows everything about me. He knows what I’m going to do tomorrow, what I did yesterday and what I’m going to do when I finish writing this blog. A time-out with God then isn’t such a bad thing but you still have the option to not listen. Why be stuck in time-out when you can always be in that relationship outside of The Box?
Don’t make God put you in The Box to get your attention. Let Him have your attention all the time. It’s what He desires.
He talks and I listen – I talk and He listens. It's a good relationship.
3 comments:
Funny because I thinking about the same thing...lately I've allowed myself to get so "busy" I feel like I'm in time out. And I hate it...you get to where you miss actually miss hearing Him so clearly. And I always thought my parents were crazy when they talked about it being a "relationship"... :) Good blog.
Wow, I really like that a lot Mitch, seriously. On a less serious note, I would have loved to have had "the box" the past few years teachings swimming lessons!
Have you ever noticed how kids who get put in time out pout and fidget the entire time? They're not only mad at you for putting them there, they also blame themselves in some way for being stupid and getting in trouble in the first place. I do that. As a performance driven person, screwing up is not an option. So when you feel like you totally let God down or you forced him to put you in the box so I'd sit still and listen, I wind up getting more angry at myself rather than the fact that I'm in the box. So not only does the box, shut us up and sit us still, it also puts a very potent taste of reality back in our lives - we're not perfect.
Well done.
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