Lord, Silence My Worries So I Can Hear Your Voice.

Over the last couple of years, my son Theo has had a handful of proper meltdowns. Not the everyday tears over the wrong colored cup. I mean the big ones. Completely inconsolable.

When he gets to that place, there is absolutely nothing you can do to reach him. You can hold him, you can get down on the floor, you can say all the right things in the calmest voice you have.

But, none of it lands. He is too far inside the storm to hear a word of it.

And the thing is, I am not angry in those moments. I am right there. As close as I can get. Saying the only things that matter. I'm here. You're okay. I've got you.

He just can't hear me yet.

It would be easy to think that is only a toddler thing, something we grow out of. But I am not sure we do. We just get quieter about it.

Mine doesn't look like lying on the floor screaming my lungs out (although that does quite apealing sometimes).

It looks like being busy. Running from one thing to the next, the drop-off, the inbox, the list that never gets shorter. It looks like lying awake doing the math on next month's mortgage, watching gas prices climb again, bracing for a bill I haven't even opened yet.

From the outside it looks like a normal, functioning adult. Inside it is the same storm Theo gets lost in. So much noise that I cannot hear the One who is right here beside me.

And He is right here. Doing for me exactly what I try to do for Theodore. As close as He can get. Not angry. Not standing over me tapping His foot.

Saying the very thing I need to hear. I've got you.

I just can't hear Him yet, because the worry is so loud.

So today, my prayer is simple: Lord, silence my worries so I can hear Your voice.

Settle the rush and the money and the running. Help me be still so I can hear you.