Devotion in Motion: On giving your full attention

1 ¶ Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. ~ Ephesians 5:1   (NKJV)

By Bro. John L. Cash, minister, blogger and father of 2

Well, it’s time to resume my weekly devotional columns because summer break is over and school has started again. The summer went by quickly, but the Cash family had its fair share of fun and adventures.

Spencer and I took a road trip to Tennessee to visit my mom, who is in assisted living there. While in Memphis, he and I spent a day touring the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel. This museum is exceptionally well-done. You would do well to make a special trip to take your family to see it.

As you would imagine, many of the exhibits there were devoted to the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and I was reminded of an anecdote about martin luther king jrhim  that I had read sometime. A reporter who had met Dr. King in the heyday of the civil rights movement recounted that the clergyman kept a hectic schedule filled with constant interruptions and people clamoring for his attention.

But the surprising thing to the interviewer was this: No matter how crowded the situation, no matter how hectic the scene, whenever Dr. King was talking to someone he always gave that person his undivided attention.

In this age of electronic devices and multitasking, the full-attention of another human being has become a rare commodity, indeed. But, upon thinking about this, I’ve come to the conclusion that attentiveness to the words and needs of others is one of primary components of the virtue of Christian love.

Did you ever stop to think that our Heavenly Father gives us His full attention whenever we speak to Him? Let’s strive to do this, too. It’s one of the ways that we can be more like our Heavenly Father.

john l cashDr. John L. Cash is the “Country Preacher Dad.” He was raised in Stuttgart, Arkansas, and has spent the last 29 years being a country preacher in the piney woods five miles south of the little town of Hickory, Mississippi. (On week days has a desk-job at a public school, where he used to teach Latin on closed-circuit-television.)  He and his lovely wife, Susan, live in the parsonage next door to the Antioch Christian Church (where the Preacher is trying to learn to be “more present in the moment”.)  Their kids include Spencer (age 23), his wife Madeline (age 23), and Seth (age 20).