Who remembers the Quiet Game? It is really popular with parents...let's play a game and see who can be the quietest. I have to admit to playing the quiet game as an adult, and for very different reasons. If I don't stay quiet, I might be left with consequences I don't want to deal with. I might create a conflict. I might have to spend more time dealing with something than I really wanted to.
I played the quiet game in the grocery store once. (I wish my kids would play it there...!) But, seriously, this was about six years ago. I was with my husband and Connor, who was a baby at the time. There was a mom who really had full hands...a screaming infant she was trying to make lay flat in the seat, and a screaming toddler who would not stay in the back of the cart. I knew I was supposed to do something to help her. Our shopping patterns made me come face to face with her in every other aisle, and I could hear the baby wailing even when I couldn't see them. But, I was playing the quiet game. I knew it wouldn't go over well for me to volunteer Rob to care for Connor so I could help the other lady. I eventually left the grocery store not doing anything to make a difference. I wouldn't recognize the other mom if I ever saw her again, but I have never forgotten the pit I felt in my stomach knowing I walked away from something that I was not supposed to. I was playing the quiet game. I was afraid.
I was playing it again until recently, which is what my last post was about. Not playing has not made my life any easier, but it is freer. Since I stopped playing, my 17 year old son has moved in and I am babysitting four days a week for my granddaughter. Not playing the quiet game has added a whole new dimension to my days, but I am where God wants me to be. I won't let the fear of what might happen if I talk outweigh the blessing of following God where He wants me to go.
That is where Beth Moore comes in. I don't think she has ever played the Quiet Game, but it is time to choose a new memory verse:
"This is my command to you: Be strong and courageous!Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9
In what areas are you playing the Quiet Game, pretending things are ok when they really aren't? Does anybody really win as long as you play along? Will you step out in faith and take God at His Word, that He is with you wherever you go, when you make a decision that honors Him?
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