#260 - How to Recognize the Noise!

DID YOU KNOW: You wondering why there are "#'s" in front of some blog posts and not others? Well... here's your answer. Today's blog, #260, will somewhat have reference back to the Proverbs 31 Woman. Any blog posts that do not have a number at the beginning of the title will just be a general devotion, not referring to a passage in Proverbs 31. Also, unless specified differently, the Amplified Version of the Bible is typically used. 

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Proverbs 31:16 -  She considers a [new] field before she buys or accepts it [expanding prudently and not courting neglect of her present duties by assuming other duties]; with her savings [of time and strength] she plants fruitful vines in her vineyard.

In referring to the Proverbs 31 woman, she is obviously an accomplished woman. She has done much, and is greatly to be modeled after. Though, most people have NO strength left, mental or physical because their productive time has been spent on things done in vain, activities that they should not have been doing in the first place. We can find ourselves not moving on to bearing fruit and having fruitful vines because our lack of strength never gets us to planting the vines! THE VINES ARE NEVER PLANTED BECAUSE WE ARE TOO BUSY WITH THE NOISE!!! We remain UNFRUITFUL in the areas God has called us to because of the noise.

Have you ever thought this: "There is so much noise, I cannot even hear myself think!" Noise around you. Noise in your head. Noise in your thoughts. Noise on your calendar, your phone, your computer. Noise. Noise. Noise! So much noise, you cannot hear.

Noise comes in many different formats. This morning while having my quiet time and thinking about a bit of a rushed morning schedule once we get started, I found myself asking the Lord this question. "Father, will you please guide me today? Teach me how to listen and obey even amongst the hustle and bustle, in all the noise. Help me Father. Shutting out noise. I know you knew noise would come. And I know they had their own kind of noise when Proverbs 31 was written."

The phrase, "Handling Noise in order to Hear" came to mind. With all of that said, I'd like to share with you some of the insights on noise that I received. EVALUATE YOURSELF. Are there any areas in the below noise categories that you need to eliminate, evaluate, tweak or even potentially focus on more?

Noise can be boiled down to two main categories. External Noise & Internal Noise. Let's look at the following list, not all is bad noise, but can be noise nonetheless.

External Noise

1. Having the TV on - needing noise in the background, often does not allow us to think, pray or hear from the Holy Spirit
2. Cell Phone - Can be an obvious distraction. Be it games, email, texting, etc. In the Roman times they entertained people to keep them from THINKING and revolting.  Hum.... could cell phones be a point of distraction to keep us from thinking?
3. Apps on your cell phone - Each app adds an additional element of noise...just one more thing to look at or do.
4. Music or audios - While your driving, do you ever have time to think? Or is there always noise in the background?
5. Children - Let's be honest, from the time they wake up, if they are toddler the idea of thinking quietly may be a far fetch from reality.
6. Activities - How many activities do you choose to be involved in and are they the right activities?
7. Schedules - What's on your schedule? Your husbands schedule? Your kids schedule? 
8. What you allow to GO on your schedule? - Like the Proverbs 31 woman in verse 16, do you expand prudently? Do you really evaluate and consider whether your time should be going to this area?
9. Facebook, twitter, Social Media - Need I say more? At the end of the day, minutes can easily turn into hours if we are not careful. 
10. Pictures - Constantly having to "capture the moment". (Often this causes us to miss the real "moments" because we are trying to capture them.)
11. Overcommitting
12. Disorganization - A mess. 
13. Lack of Systems in place - Constantly have to think, "Where am I going to put this?" because it doesn't have a place. 
14. Excessive Entertainment - Always a movie, Netflix, a show, a book. 
15. Work
16. The WRONG Work 

Internal Noise

1. Comparing - Allowing your mind to compare yourself to others
2. Busyness - No downtime to sit quietly and think or pray. 
3. Guilt - Guilt is a condemnation tool that takes your listening focus onto the negative.
4. Self-Talk - What do you SAY to yourself? What are you speaking into existence about your life? Family? Children? Your day? Your future?
5. Belief or Lack of Belief - Believing the wrong way. How or what are you believing from the Lord? Often our own belief is too low not allowing GOD to do His part. I heard the words, "BELIEVE ME WILDLY!"
6. Wandering thoughts - Thinking about nothing and meaningless things. That is noise and wasted time. 

TO DO: Make a "THINK LIST" - When you have the down time, what are some things you need to think on? Have a list ready & THINK on these things. It may be an organized prayer time, it may be thinking on ways to organize and streamline your life, it may be thinking on your next steps towards accomplishing your dream, being productive, parenting, being healthy, preparing healthy meals, developing a schedule for YOURSELF, cleaning, etc. Develop a THINK LIST. When your mind is tempted to wander about nothing or spend countless hours drifting into Facebook, INSTEAD with a THINK LIST in place, you may find yourself creating valuable systems to put into place in your home that will help you have more peace and be more productive, and ultimately accomplish what GOD would have you accomplish on a daily basis! 

#31 - NOISE CHECK

Good Morning. 
You know those mornings when you have a lot to do? You are kinda in a hurry? The mornings when you just don't even think about it, but you expect everything to just go as planned. Well.... this morning, IN THE PAST (moving forward it's going to be perfect, IN JESUS NAME) 45 minutes, my morning has been interesting. Laptop #1 battery.... no juice.... try to rig up for cord to reach to my Quiet Time spot... nope. So, go to Laptop #2... go re-rig Laptop #1 to put Pandora on inside with Tyler's Worship Music station, begin with Laptop #2 outside at "MY" Quiet Time spot. 2 minutes, BLACK. Laptop #2, out of juice. (I'm so excited to upgrade this laptop....it's about 10 years young. :) ) SO.... rig cord through the window, Laptop #1 - NOW WE ARE IN BUSINESS!!


So... what all that "rigger-morol", as they say in the south, I'm finally beginning. I actually considered not doing a post today. My parents and niece, Kassidy, will be here soon and I have some quick errands to run. Planned on a 30 minute post.... haha. It's been 45 minutes just dealing with laptops! HA! What do I say, "HA HA HA! I laugh at you Satan! HA HA HA!" lol! Funny. So, let's cut to the chase and roll on.... 

Proverbs 9:13 - The foolish woman is noisy; she is simple and open to all forms of evil, she [willfully and recklessly] knows nothing whatever [of eternal value].

Proverbs 31:29 - Many daughters have done virtuously, nobly, and well [with the strength of character that is steadfast in goodness], but you excel them all.

When I first read Proverbs 9, the word noisy just kept jumping out at me. NOISY. NOISY. NOISY. I shudder at the word NOISY. Noise to me is equivalent to "Competition with the Holy Spirit." Noise. I anticipate the "noisy woman" was ranting and raving... being loud. The louder she could be the more likely others would miss listening to logic. Even before the Holy Spirit was given to us as a guide..... people in the Old Testament, or those before Jesus left earth, ALIVE, to be at the right hand of the Father.... though people were yet to have the BENEFIT of the Holy Spirit to guide them... they could still ask logic.... from past study of the holy Scriptures, from their experiences of what is right and wrong. What is according to the "law" back in that time. But, I anticipate the "noisy woman" was doing all she could to be loud enough where they couldn't even hear themselves think. NOISE. 


What is "NOISE" to you? To me, "noise" is TV. Brace yourself.... by choice, we haven't had cable in 10 years. Our whole married life we have not had cable. So American Idol, all the TV shows... etc, etc... our lives have not revolved around, "Oh, it's Monday night, my show is on." Or, "Oh, it's Wednesday night, gotta get home before my show starts." The Noise of TV, we have not missed it. I LOVE IT! To me, it feels like our home is always just peaceful. Whether it is just the peaceful sound of nothing.... of quiet. It is just peaceful. We may have Pandora streaming with worship music.... we may be playing a business CD, or success CD... we may be playing a ministry CD.... or, it may just be quiet. 


As I was asking the Holy Spirit, what Proverbs 31 verse would accompany our Proverbs 9 verse, He directed me to this one. He directed me to the woman who excels them all. I thought about what characteristics it talks about in Proverbs 31... she looks, she speaks, she makes things, she buys, she tastes & sees.... but, this verse, she excels all women! It says the foolish woman in Proverbs 9 is open to all forms of evil. I began to think about it... as our Proverbs 31 woman "looks well to how things go in her household"... and ultimately, she excels them all. I came to the conclusion that she is excelling this foolish woman, she must be protecting herself from being open to all forms of evil.


What would or could be forms of evil? Good question, glad you asked. Let's just cover a few:

• Busyness - BUSY - Being Under Satan's Yoke - Busyness could be a form of evil. Are you too busy? Does your "busyness" not leave you time to spend in the Word... to seek out God. Busyness is MOST DEFINITELY one of the plans of the wicked one to pull people of God away from their ultimate purpose and destiny. If he, Satan, can just keep people busy enough to not have time for God, then they are succeeding. I choose to no longer be "BUSY", but to now be divinely productive. :) 
• Bad Content - What are you taking in? Content... in-flow.... what is coming in? What TV shows are you watching? Are they streaming with lust, adultery, killing, murder, acceptance of abortion, homosexual relationships. Is the humor off color to a degree that would be embarrassing if your Pastor was sitting with you? If Jesus was sitting with you? What books are you reading? Websites are you visiting? Take an inventory.
• Idols - Idols could come in many forms. An idol is anything that you are putting before God. I was reminded yesterday when I visited some old co-workers. The Regional President of the bank I worked for asked me, "Amy, you're not one of those mom's that worships your child are you?" No. Tyler Jr is definitely #3 in my life. First God, 2nd my husband, 3rd my son. It could be easy for parents to idolize their children, or put them above their relationship with God.... especially when their live revolves around their kids. Running from this practice to that, flirting with the "BUSY" plan of the enemy. (Don't get me wrong, I'm all for kids activities, if they are directed from the Holy Spirit to be involved. The moment those "activities" pull everyone away from their relationship with their Father is the beginning of where the line would have to be for me.) Idols could come in the form of "working out", worshipping your own body and what you look like. 
• Witchcraft - The appearance of "witchcraft" is now more "appealing" looking. With the Harry Potter movies, the "fun" little spell books, and witchcraft items you can get at Barnes & Nobles... I'm sure all seem harmless. But it is the beginning of evil seeping in. Just worth looking deeper. I haven't seen the "weegy" boards (spelled wrong, but you know what I'm talking about)... those were somewhat common when I was growing up. I never played with one, but it was a way to be directed by "Satan". Literally. A game, things on the game would move and it was being done by evil spirits. All things to be very cautious about and to steer clear!
• Strife - Eliminate strife in your life. It can be a way the enemy can gain a foothold. Once strife enters, the enemy is present.  

There are SO many forms of evil. The most important thing we can do to avoid evil, is to continue to "meditate on the Word, day & night" to continue to check our motives. To check our intake. What is coming in. We have all heard this frequently, "What comes in, goes out." GIGO - Good In, Good Out. Is enough of the "good" coming in that even when bad happens, the good still goes out? 

Our Proverbs 31 woman has excelled them all. She most definitely did have some "checks" in her life. As we read... she looked well to how things when in her household, she did not partake in gossip, she spent time in the Word. All these things keeping her free from being open to all forms of evil.

I have to check myself also! We are still normal people. We rent movies, we use Netflix. We still have to check OUR walk. We recently stopped watching a movie series because it just continue to have a "not right" check in our spirit. We wanted to keep watching it. It was sooooo good. It drew us in. We wanted to see, "What happened to so-and-so in this episode?" And, we even knew of a very prominent minister that we knew of who followed this "show." Why could HE watch it and WE couldn't? Well... all I can say is this... the Holy Spirit is directing US in this matter, specifically this show. And the Holy Spirit may direct someone else differently. Dragging our feet, pouts on, we stopped watching the show. :-(  But out of obedience. The Holy Spirit knows best. 

Do a check this today. What is the "NOISE" in your life today? Is there any? What is in the danger zone for you? Is anything getting close to opening you to all forms of evil? 

Do a NOISE CHECK today.