“Casting all you cares upon [H]im for He careth for you.”  (1 Peter 5)

 

We wrote an article recently concerning a Biblical priciple. This principle concerned doing for others what God does for us. In this article we mentioned forgiving others because God forgives us. We spoke about comforting others because God comforts us among others. In this article we would like to speak about being a sounding board or letting others cast their cares upon you.

You might find this a bit frightenibg. You might not feel qualified but that is the beauty of being a sounding board. Tou need not have the answers, you need only listen as the other vents frustrations, cares, anger, etc. I have heard other complain about being a sounding board as they feel as though they are being used, that the one venting doesn’t really want their councel, they are simple using you to hear themselves think. This is certainly the wrong attitude. My eldest daughter will bring some of her concerns to me, she will lay out frustrations, options, etc, on;y to come to her one conclusions and all I have done is nod my head, shake my head, raise my eye brows, say, huh or hmmm and them feel relief that she has figured things out for herself or God has anwered her.

Sometimes to help another one merely has to pretend one is hearing a non english person talking to you, only smile and make a non verbal gesture. It is or should be taken as an honour when another uses you as a sounding board. THe person speaking to you trusts you, considers you as being smart or wise and valuable.

In our text above we are told to cast our cares upon Christ because He cares for us, however this text does not promise an answer to our cares. One may infer that an answer could be forth right but the passage does not state it out-right. After having written that last  (2) teo sentences let me state clearly thay when an answer does come one should always acknowledge and give thanks to God for the answer. It is always good practice to give God thank for all things such as answers, or wisdom as coming from above. One can never go wrong in acknowledging God for all things, trust me.

As I wrote above, it is an honour when someones looks to you as someone they can bounce things off of.  It is cettainly a great honour to this writer. I view this honour as a major part of my ministry.  Like I wrote above, we might not always have an answer as the one speaking to you might come to an answer on thieir own or God may grant them wisdom. I have actually had someone thank me for my help in solving a problem when all I did was listen and acknowledge them with gestures, verbal and non verbal. We need not have all the answers, we need only be a set of caring ears, as James said, Be slow to speak and quick to hear…” (James 1).
I have heard it said, God gave is (1) one mouth and (2) two ears let us use them accordingly. THe Proberbs has so very much to say about listening and speaking. The wise man counsels us to keep quiet, and Peter tell us that the man that seeks a happy life, he will keep his mouth clothed. WE also read in the Gospels how often Christ would use brevity and silence in His ministry. The Proverbs also tells the fool that he will be thought wise if only he would keep quiet and the fool will be known by a multitude of works.  When i was a much younger and a much more foolish lad, I was a big drinker and I could actually hide my inebriation by keeping silence. Scripture teached that love will cover a multitude of sin, experience teaches me that silence can to. Please do not take the last couple of sentences as an encouragement to sin quietly. I am simply making the point that silence is a good quality to have, sin is not. One can be sure that sin will find you out, especially if you continue in that sin.

Godspeed.