The LORD said, “My word . . . that goeth forth out of my mouth . . . shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please.”
– Isaiah 55:11 (KJV)
I love hearing another’s story. It seems we never meet a person without a story. When we listen into their story we most likely will hear the moral compass of their life story. A WORD that gave design to their vocation, their hopes and dreams and yes, even things that seemed off course but found needful in their life journey as it was packed into their emergency travel kit.
Do you ever listen to yourself telling your story to others? Or, read what you journaled when you recorded your story?
Lazy, hot, steamy summer heat in No Virginia makes air conditioned coffee shoppes and ice cream digs hot spots to share and hear story. Recently, I took mental notes of listening as storytellers told their dot to dot stories. In meditating on words they told I found I could just focus on Isaiah 55:11 and find a basket of words to hold dear to my heart. Rejoice with them! Find Hope! Applaud!Peace! And, many other wonderful energies that bubble in their space.
It seems we find their hour glass with a sand flow as well as ours when we watch and heart listen from this view. “Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done…”
(Isaiah 46:10, NKJV)
thedailylily.com 
“Word Meditation”. I appreciate and found lots of phrases in the words you wrote above,Sara, to meditate on regarding stories. They painted pictures and seemed to frame a story house. Particularly, “listen into”; “moral compass of their life story”; “a WORD that gave design to their vocation”; “emergency travel kit”; “dot to dot stories”; “their hour glass with a sand flow “; “wonderful energies that bubble in their space”; and ” heart listen”.
Thanks Debi, I just read this little story by Lori, of SC. She gave her story to a vacation Bible School teacher that might have been a bit discouraged about her numbers. Sounds like an hour glass sand flow as well as dot to dot…”I told about my first vacation Bible school. It was hosted by a small church, and only a handful of neighborhood children attended. I was one of them. “That’s where I received my first Bible,” I told her. “I also memorized my first Bible verse, and sang ‘Jesus Loves Me’ for the first time. Thirteen years later, when a friend shared the gospel with me and quoted John 3:16, I already knew the verse because I had memorized it so many years before.
I didn’t make a decision to follow Christ the summer I attended vacation Bible school. The kind people at that church never knew I came to faith 13 years later, but God used the verse they helped me memorize to open my heart. I’ve served God faithfully for over 30 years. Even if we can’t see it at the time, we can trust that God’s word always accomplishes God’s purpose.” This was part of an Upper Room story. I love hour glass sand flow stories.
It seems when our hearts have been opened by John 3:16 as in Lori’s story we have a voice to share our stories and enhanced rabbit ears to hear others!
That is a great story, Sara! That seed planting sure produced a harvest.