Chest Out, Stomach In

(Pro 5:1 KJV)  My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:

“Attention!”  O, how I came to hate that word when I was in the army.  This doesn’t grab you in the KJV which says “attend” (7181). 

In the military when an officer who outranks everyone else walks into the room , the first person to see him is supposed to yell, “Attention!”  You are trained like Pavlov’s dogs to stop whatever you are doing and jump to your feet.  All activity must stop.  Someone above you is here.

As American civilians we tend to ignore this kind of thing.  Formal recognition of class and rank are not a part of our thinking.  We have our informal pecking order and are slaves to it but usually we are too casual for military protocol.  Unfortunately we tend to be the same way about the wisdom that God wants to share with us.  We sleep through sermons.  Skim when we read the Bible and go for coffee at key moments.

Those are bad habits.

So?  Pay attention.  Any time the Holy Spirit speaks to you, stop what you are doing and focus on the lesson at hand.  This could be the still small voice or a fire and brimstone sermon.  You won’t get the message if you don’t read your mail.