Teenage girls are a bit of a mystery to me, even though, once upon a time, in a land far, far away, I was one. I suppose it’s because I have lived in an estrogen-deprived household for many years now, surrounded as I am by guys. Even my dog is a male, albeit a neutered one (shhhh – don’t tell him), who struts around like he’s got all the doggy testosterone in the world coursing through his macho veins.
For a couple of months of the year, though, I visit the estrogen side of the tracks when I coach the girl’s tennis team at Greenwood Christian School. And one thing that always strikes me during the tennis season is that I hear more words spoken in one day at practice than I hear in a month at my house. These young ladies can flat out talk.
Many females are good at multi-tasking, but my tennis girls carry this gift to a new level, sustaining extended conversations about infinite random subjects while firing off groundstrokes and serves on the tennis court. It’s quite amazing, really.
As their coach, I encourage them to take conversational time-outs to fully focus on their tennis skills, but it’s like telling the wind not to blow. And to be honest, one of the primary perks of my coaching job is the entertainment I derive from listening to what they say.
One day, for example, I asked one of the seniors on the team if she had chosen a college to attend next year. She said she had considered a particular school because she thought she might want to be a veterinarian, but now she wasn’t sure if she wanted to be a veterinarian after all.
Another girl stopped in her tracks and looked at us with a puzzled expression on her face. Finally, as Girl #1 continued to explain her thoughts about vet school, Girl #2 laughed and said, “Ohhhhhh – a veterinarian. I thought you said you wanted to be a vegetarian. I couldn’t figure out why you’d choose a college for that.”
There might be schools on the West Coast where one can major in vegetarianism, but probably not in this neck of the woods, and recalling this conversational misfire still makes me chuckle.
Another day, while smacking groundstrokes fired by a ball machine, the girls were engaged in a discussion about how many extra calories they could burn each day if they just fidgeted and bounced their legs up and down as they sat in class. Too bad the “Discovery Channel” didn’t have a crew out there to record the scientific information being shared in that conversation.
Yes indeed, my intake of words multiplies exponentially during tennis season. It’s often funny, but sometimes way more than my ears and brain can process, which makes it all the more amazing to me that God listens so attentively to all His children.
Countless people blessing Him, cursing Him, thanking Him, blaming Him, asking Him– all at the same time. Talk about brain overload.
But not for God.
We always have His ear and He listens as though we are the only one speaking to Him. We’ll never be so thoroughly heard … and understood … and loved … as we are by our Heavenly Father. What a gift.
It makes me wonder why I don’t talk to Him more.
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything …” — Philippians 4:6 (The Living Bible)