Open our hearts, O Lord,
to listen to the words of your Son.
Acts of the Apostles 16:14 from the Alleluia verse
Many times in the Gospels, we see Jesus makes a statement, and then he is questioned or doubted, and then He has a reply which is often not exactly what the protesters expected to hear. Sounds a bit like parenting doesn't it? We make a statement, the kids question it, and then we give them an answer and reply which is often not exactly what they want to hear.
It is good to overview what we expect from our relationships with our loved ones and even our coworkers, because many times we expect one thing and they are thinking another thing. We want something like a chore or an errand to happen, and if we do not make the list very clear, we probably have learned from experience the other person will most likely not accomplish that errand or chore the way we expected. If I put bread on the list, my kids could easily come back from the grocery with cinnamon buns when I really wanted 5 grain sandwich bread. The cinnamon buns are to me like the words they want to hear, but not necessarily what is nutritionally what I expected to feed them.
Jesus gives us 5 grain bread in the scriptures, and I'll be honest, when things get tough, sometimes I only want to hear cinnamon bun language, but I know from experience which of the two is really going to fulfill my hunger longer.
