Silence

We live in a fast-paced world. I live in a fast-paced world. My wife and I have four young children. The oldest is a 7 year old first grader and the youngest is a vibrant 10 mo. old with the loudest voice of any child I've ever heard! There really is little silence in our house. For that matter, there is little silence in our car, in our yard, in our church, in our neighborhood Wal-Mart, in our....well, you get the idea. There is constant motion and commotion with the Helms family. We've even noticed that our house if filled with sound while we sleep. Silence isn't common for me.
The Bible has much to say about silence. The Old Testament is replete with exhortations to silence. "Be still and know that I am God." "He leads me by the still waters; he restoreth my soul." (I've always thouht it interesting that the Lord leads his children to the still waters to restore their souls!) In the Revelation, there is a space of about an hour where silence fills the air of all creation. There are other places where silence is encouraged.
Last night we had four cousins in addition to our four children. That makes 8 unless you count Susan - that makes 9! (If you talk to Susan, she'll say that makes 12 - if you count John!) So, we had two car loads of children. They had eaten their fill of pizza. They had consumed enough Pepsi to jump start the nuclear reactor at Robinson. They were wired and pumped for the long haul! We had a very noisy ride home.
Once we put our children in bed, I took the cousins home to put them to bed. (Their parents were out of town on the ball circuit.) Once the cousins settled down, one by one they dropped off to bed. That gave me about two hours of silence before their mother and brother got home. I took that opportunity to read my Bible and pray. In two hours of silence I got sermon material, prayer time, meditation time on the Word and a host of other spiritual benefits. Truly, the Lord restores my soul by still waters and I have a renewed understanding that He is God and I am not! Silence is a blessing not often enjoyed by parents. Next time you get some silence, don't go to sleep! Sit before the Lord and know that He is God!