Silence. It’s a rare occurrence in a house that is home to small kids. There are moments of course. Some are wonderful. That moment everyone is in bed and has finally fallen asleep. When you made dinner and everyone is enjoying it so much there isn’t time to make a sound. These are good moments. Breaks in the fullness of the day where noise is the norm. Don’t misunderstand me, parenting is a joy – but it’s also loud. There are other silent moments, however, that are not so wonderful; in fact, they are just suspicious.
Don’t be fooled
One day, when my youngest daughter was 17 months old, while working in the kitchen I realised that the house was incredibly quiet. Too quiet for a place that was occupied by a larger-than-life, full-of-fun toddler who didn’t do anything, unless it was with volume. Upon investigation I found her in her room surrounded by what seemed like every toy we owned tipped out of the toy chest and spread across the entire area of her bedroom floor. Chaos on such a level requires huge amounts of concentration, and obviously didn’t leave room for noise while the mischief was taking place. I learnt on that day that just because I can’t hear something, doesn’t mean nothing is happening. Silence is possibly an indication that something is going on behind the scenes that I know nothing about.
Never not there
As frustrating as this area of parenting can be, I’ve begun to appreciate the activity during the silence because it reminds me of something that, when I’m struggling to be patient or feeling like everything is working against me, I really need to keep in mind. There are times when we can ask God for something and it really feels like those prayers just bounce back to us unanswered. Sometimes, we’re trusting for a specific outcome, or for a way through a situation, and it appears that we are left to struggle alone.
The thing is, just because God seems to be silent and there isn’t any indication of activity, it doesn’t mean that he’s not working things out in the background. In the book of Psalms the Bible tells us that God doesn’t sleep or rest but that he’s always watching over the various aspects of your life. In the book of Romans we are told that God sees that everything works together for the good of those who love him. If this is true, even when it feels like God is doing nothing, he’s busy working out his plan for our lives. We are told that God will never leave us or walk away from us, so in the quiet times we can be certain that God is still present and very active.