Throughout the Bible, it’s clear that questions reveal the truth!

Jesus asked many questions as He walked within people’s lives.

Questions:  Received—They Can Truly REVEAL so much about who we are deep down in our being.

Questions:  Asked—They Can Truly REVEAL so much about what others know to be true about themselves.

QUESTIONS.

Every lesson taught within a unit of study in the classroom begins with a guiding question, an essential question that allows students to learn and to apply the lesson to what they already know to be true & to connect the lesson to what they will need to know as they walk forward into the next level of learning or into the next courses.  Yes, teachers learn how to ask questions, how to word questions, & how to wait, providing the quiet space needed for students to “think” about the correct answer.  Teachers learn this skill in their university studies, as they prepare to become teachers because in waiting for the answers, all students are given what each one desperately needs:  TIME & SPACE & OPPORTUNITY to LEARN.

• Is that not true about what God wants for each one of us?
• Is it not also true when considering the TRUTH that God desires for each of us to receive as we walk throughout our lives?
• Is it true that God loves us far more deeply than we will ever really understand this side of heaven?

Today, in reflection, I wonder why we avoid asking ourselves the difficult questions?

Today, in reflection, I wonder why we avoid speaking the difficult answers, even within ourselves? 

Yesterday, during lunch, we were sitting near the sea, and why we waited for our food to arrive, I asked the three people I love sitting beside me a question, something each one of us could answer.

Then, last night, during dinner, we were sitting at the table in the retreat Sydney had booked for our stay, and I asked another question, something each one of us could dig deep within our hearts and truthfully share with the others.  As soon as I voiced the question, Marieke said, “Are you thinking of an answer too?”

My Answer to her question:  “Yes.  Yes, I was.”

Oftentimes, I have received from others this statement when describing me—“You like to ask questions,” and I suppose that I really do enjoy—Asking Questions.

I enjoy listening to others reflect upon their own lives and their own thoughts.  How can we know if we do not ask?

In asking questions and in the pause, in the quiet moments after the questions, we are given space to really see what maybe was hidden deep, what we know to be true, but what we have not allowed the world to see or to know about us.

My husband joking says, “Watch out, she’s about to ask you a bunch of questions.”  I hope he is more glad than sad that I do enjoy asking questions.

Questions.

Questions & their Answers—They Truthfully REVEAL who we REALLY ARE deep inside our being.

Just to be truthful here, I do enjoy asking others questions.  Here are some (questions) I have recently asked others:

• When will you know where you will be moving?
• How long until you reach the end of your military commitment?
• Do you like living here?
• If you could live somewhere else, where would you enjoy living?
• Why do you want to go?
• What do you hope to see?
• What do you hope to gain?
• How will your life be different in five years?  in one year?
• What is the purpose in choosing to do this?
• Where will you live if you do not find an apartment with your two friends?
• Who will live in your room why you are gone?
• If no one is chosen, will you need to continue to pay?
• If you do not move to the south but to the west, will the position & the work be enjoyed more?
• Will you continue working at the school, even all the way to the end?
• When do you hope to take the examination?
• How is it possible for the two of you to look so much like one another when you don’t even share the same genetic DNA?
• How is it possible to love another so deeply?

On & On.

Question after Question.

Asking.  Receiving.  Quiet Reflection.  Quiet Without Jumping In or Filling the Quiet Space.  Quiet While Patiently Awaiting the Response.

Sometimes, questions bring another to an internal response, a personal reply, even more than the answer given aloud.

Yes, the insight we find in receiving another’s question, in the quiet reflection, and then in our truthful response, these answers bring us to new spaces, new platforms, and the newness of our thinking—unlike we’ve never known. We can lie to others & we can lie to ourselves, even for an entire lifetime—We Can Never Lie To God—because—God Knows the Truth Before the Question is Asked!

Yes, GOD KNOWS, and in His Beauty, HE PROVIDES us space & time to Respond.

As I read in God’s Word, we see the account of Jesus’ question He asked His disciples, I note how Jesus asked His disciples questions, & Jesus already knew the answer to His questions.

Our Guiding Questions.  They are the ones that do exactly as the word suggests—They Guide our Thinking.

Our Essential Life Questions.  They are the ones that are so necessary—They prepare us for our present and for our future, while reflecting and building upon our past.

Jesus knew the answer to His question before He asked!

Oftentimes, WE do too, KNOW our answers BEFORE others voice their questions, & oftentimes, WE just NEED to say aloud, to SPEAK our answer SO our ears & OUR MIND can GRASP the TRUTH OUR HEART already KNOWS to be TRUE!

What answers do we know (that when we speak the answers aloud) OR (hear our voices say the answers aloud) that when acknowledged will require us to make necessary changes? (even within our own selves)

Change is difficult.  Yes, most definitely so!

• TRUTH can be difficult to receive because TRUTH causes us to be REAL with ourselves.
• TRUTH can activate CHANGE within our lives and within our beings that we just may not want to accept—just yet.

TRUTH—RECEIVED!

TRUTH—REVEALED!

Questions:  Both Received & Asked—What CAN They Truly REVEAL?

Answers:  Both Held Tightly Deep in Our Hearts & Spoken Aloud—REVEAL TRUTH!

Jesus pursues our growth.

The Holy Spirit of God desires to mold our spiritual, emotional, mental, and our physical—Growth.

God desires that all come to know Him!

God wants all who know Him to be sanctified as we walk through life.

God will make us ready; He will bring to completion that which He has placed inside us.

God will grow our faith—if we allow Him to!