Description
You Need To Get Ted!
It is a skill to learn to listen to that still small voice, but it is vitally important. Sandy tells the story of a day about 40 years ago when the family was living in Texas.
On one particular day, Sandy was home with her four children and they were off playing somewhere, or as she put it in “various stages of mischief.” That is all except for Ted, who was outside in the backyard playing on his tricycle.
At that time, they lived in the suburbs of Ft. Worth, and behind the tall reddish wooden fence of their backyard there was a very busy four lane road with a lot of traffic.
Sandy was in the kitchen cutting up something for dinner when she heard a still small voice whisper, “You need to get Ted and bring him in the house.” It wasn’t a shout or a constraint—it was just a whisper.
So, Sandy immediately dropped the knife, went to the back door, and called little Ted. He was playing on his trike near the back fence of the property. Immediately, Ted climbed off the trike and ran to the house.
He stepped through the door. Just as Sandy closed the door behind her son, they heard a very loud crash in the backyard. Quickly she pulled the door open again just in time to see the remnants of her husband’s greenhouse pass quickly across the yard.
A drunk driver had left the highway, crashed through her neighbor’s fence and then into her yard, destroying everything as he went. Sandy said:
“He stumbled out of the car in a dazed condition after clawing his way from under the shade cloth and lumber. We ran out into the backyard to see if he was okay and assess the damage to our property. Green house? Totally obliterated. Herbs, plastic, dirt, and clay pots everywhere.”
As they assessed the damage, Sandy found “Ted’s tricycle under the front end of the man’s car—crushed.”
Sandy concluded by saying:
“Now, this should give every mother and father a moment to pause and think carefully about postponing those promptings from the other side of the veil. What if I had not responded to that still small voice immediately by saying ‘Ok, in a minute, I’ll just finish cutting this carrot’…. The outcome of this disaster would have been totally catastrophic. Our son would have been under that car, and I’m sure he would have been killed instantly. What did I have confirmed to me that day? When you get a prompting, no matter how inconvenient, or how silly it sounds. Just Do It. It might save a life.”
How often do we hear our people pray for the Holy Spirit to guide them, but are we just as diligent in practicing and learning to listen to His voice?
Source: Sandy Parten. Original with the author.
