All the little moments...

I've been taking some time this week to recognize and enjoy those moments where you feel a little outside yourself; where you can almost step outside of the situation you find yourself in and soak it up for what its worth. Let me give you an example. I had 2 conversations with 2 different old men yesterday.Now, don't go thinking about this in a creepy old man way! What I mean is the cute, really old men who just need someone to share their life stories with. I was mowing my lawn and my neighbor Mr. Macloed walked by just as I was turning the corner on the lawn near the road. I used to deliver newspapers to him back in the day and always had great conversations with him and his wife. Normally I would say hi but just continue on mowing. But instead, I decided to turn off the mower and take the time to really talk with him. It was one of those moments where you just knew that God wanted you to be there to just listen. I've been learning a lot about listening lately and the opportunity presented itself to practically apply the skill. I love it when you can sense God's design in those little moments of our lives...when you are able to just step outside yourself for that brief moment in time and serve another persons need to be heard. Later on that day, I decided to take my book, a cup of tea, a lawn chair and a blanket and head down to the lake to enjoy some reading (and as you are all probably thinking right now, yes, yes I do have some free time on my hands these days!!) It wasn't too long after I sat down, that a man pulled up and started searching through all the rocks on the shore. I noticed what he was doing, but just continued to read. After about 1/2 an hour, the man approached me with a really cool rock he had found and proceeded to enlighten me on the fascinating hobby of rock collecting!! yeah! Obviously I listened with keen interest and after a few minutes, realized that this again was another opportunity to sit patiently and be a listening ear to an old man who needed it. I chose in that moment to have no agenda, no purpose but to listen...and to speak when necessary. And its interesting how the Lord will lead because before I knew it, we were talking about my faith. And the amazing thing about it was that I had nothing to do with it. I want to have more experiences like that...where even for a brief moment, I am able to step outside myself and allow the Lord to give me new eyes to experience those situations from His perspective. And I want to recognize those times when the Lord asks me to let go of my own agenda so I can fully experience His.