It’s been a busy week of interviews for us, in Leiden, Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

I mentioned preparing for General Conference in all my interviews.

A common theme was about hearing and following the voice of the Lord.

I shared an experience with a few that I had with prayer some 15 months ago.

In my blog of 3rd January 2022, I recorded the following:

“Arising from my knees early this morning, I asked myself had I simply been “saying a prayer or had I 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒖𝒏𝒆𝒅 with God?”

I paused and reflected upon the question.

I slowed down.

I sunk deeply into my very comfortable chair.

I noticed all of the distractions around me.

The ticking of a clock.

The buzzing of an electric light.

The whistling and howling of the wind.

A car engine roaring into life.

The chirping of an early morning bird.

I noticed my breathing, in an out and the physical sensations of my breath.

I became much more 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒕.”

Turn off the television, the radio, your podcast, put your mobile device down, and switch off anything else making a noise in the room where you are sitting.

Listen to the silence.

What can you hear?

The ticking of a clock perhaps?

The sound of traffic from outside?

Someone making noise in another room?

Had you heard those noises before?

If our lives are filled with noise, we won’t hear the still, small, whispering voice of the Lord.

Likewise, it’s only in the silence of our little experiment, that we hear the quieter sounds.

We have to learn to quieten both our inner and the outer noise to find stillness.

Henry B. Eyring said “Your problem and mine is not to get God to speak to us; few of us have reached the point where he has been compelled to turn away from us. Our problem is to 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫.”

Some 5 ½ years ago, our dog Fawn, found a quiet, still place to rest her head on mine, for half an hour watching General Conference.

I hope that all of us will take the time to tune in to General Conference this weekend and listen for that still small voice that whispers, as we hear from those who have been called to speak about Him.

In our lives, how can we demonstrate what we think of Him?