By: Hajun

Read: DEUTERONOMY 9:1-10:22, LUKE 8:4-21, PSALM 69:19-36, PROVERBS 12:2-3

So pay attention to how you hear. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given.
But for those who are not listening, even what they think they understand will be taken away from them.
(Luke 8:18)

Relate: After reading the verse from Luke 8:18, I knew that this verse was exactly for me. Back then, when I first started to learn how to play the piano, I really didn’t want to learn an instrument since it wasn’t my decision to learn the piano. It was my parents who made this decision, telling me to like it as if it was the option I chose when it was mandatory and vice versa. Since I wasn’t engaged enough or had the attitude of a learner, my skill was at the bare minimum, and it was honestly miserable now that I think of it. Moreover, because of the attitude I had, I wasn’t able to learn the things that the teacher had taught me or I didn’t have any motivation for myself to practice the piano at my house.

It was a typical day when my parents dropped me off at the piano center, and I went to the place pushing the front door thinking, ‘I’m not trying to do this for more than an hour,’ but something was slightly different today. I saw a bunch of kids who looked like they were homeless, and honestly, they looked really nasty. But the kids there wanted to learn the piano and were listening to the teacher as if they were watching their favorite TV show. I went to my teacher and asked who they were, and she replied, “ They are from the orphanage down the road where kids can not afford the tuition fee to learn instruments, so we’ve decided to give them a free tutoring session every week.” Then I realized the privilege I had, and yet I wasted all the time not listening to the tutor or my parents who begged me to practice every day. The first feeling that struck into my head was embarrassment. I was ashamed of myself and felt pathetic how I could have been so much better now if I just had the attitude to listen. After that, I decided to change my attitude. I became engaged and had an interest in playing it. Changing my attitude and listening had given better results as well as a deep understanding about the piano. I stopped playing piano after high school, but I don’t regret how I’ve learned and got a moral lesson that has changed my life even after quitting. This really lent a helping hand when it came to learning things such as my classwork, instruments, tools, or even about different individual aspects of others and the way they interpret things differently from me.

React: Reading this made me think of my life back when I often did not listen to my parents or others who were speaking. Reading Luke 8:18, it says how I would get more understanding when I listen to people. Most importantly, it is always good for me to have an attitude as a listener and give myself some space to understand things even when I don’t want to or do not understand. I am really grateful to have this verse as my devotional since I believe that this is a reminder from God specifically for me to know that I should listen carefully of others in order for me to understand not just more effectively but to take the chance that God has given to me because if I don’t listen, the opportunity that has been given to me will be faded away.

Respond:

Dear God,
I pray to You today, Lord, that You will give me the strength and the ability to listen to You and to others. I often struggle with how I use my ears, and I really ask you to give me the wisdom to hear the things I need to hear and not the things that You don’t want me to hear. Through this prayer, I ask for Your help for me to be a better listener and learn to listen to the things that are important not just to me individually but to You, Lord.
Amen