Say What?

At a local Waffle House, I began a waitress job on weekends in 2001. It didn’t last long enough to get my name tag pinned on a uniform before I knew this job was not for me. I wanted health insurance, but not that bad! I couldn’t find it within myself to stand on the marked spot and yell loud enough for someone in the restroom to also hear. That just set my mood on edge, especially when I didn’t get the point of yelling the customer’s order to begin with. But that was the practice for years, and I knew the rules wouldn’t bend on my behalf. Back then I could yell at my kids that loud, or even a bad driver, but I just couldn’t pull myself to do this! 

If you have a family member that can’t hear very well then maybe you can relate when I tell you about my mother. It’s worse than why I quit working at that restaurant in only two days’ time. Except as long as I am able, I can’t stop trying to do my best on her behalf, even if it means being extremely loud. This woman can be closer than the cook that only stood six foot away, and it can still become overly complicated. Just ask my brothers. And if my husband is in the next room and I’m yelling, then he thinks I’m talking to him and there goes that long drawn-out madness of explaining what in the world is going on and ends with both getting confused.

If you ever saw the movie called Freaky Friday, then you understand what I mean by using the words joy-sucker. I can’t tell her anything funny without this condition sucking my joy once I’ve had to repeat it a third time, so I usually give up. Not to mention the fact that dementia and Alzheimer are worse than a lack of hearing! I can’t imagine how she must feel. (I mean no disrespect for anyone that suffers deafness.)

When I recently took her to have an ultrasound on her thyroid, I knew she wasn’t completely hard of hearing. The technician entered and although the noise of the air conditioning and the equipment was running loudly in the background, this lady spoke in the quietest voice, and begin asking Mother questions, and mind you that she answered them all – correctly and without needing them to be repeated. I thought maybe a miracle had occurred between the waiting area and the room I was standing in, but I knew that wasn’t the case, because before this technician walked in, I still had to repeat everything. I wish a hearing aid were the answer but been there and done that.

They say that it’s likely that you can drown out voices much easier as you grow old; that’s called selective hearing. However, if I’m most honest, sometimes I believe this is how I may be guilty of listening to God, or should I say not? So why does this frustrate me with Mother, especially after I halfway listened to her back in my younger years. Isn’t it awfully funny when things tend to bother us that we are also known for doing?

~Question: Are you sometimes guilty of having selective hearing – even when it comes to the things of God?

The Bible says in Hebrews 3:15 “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in rebellion.”