About ten days ago, I stopped posting the little note-card-sized reminders that I was creating each day to go along with the Thirty-Days of Gratitude e-book. It seemed a little redundant to me. But instead of doing anything about it, I just went silent—not only on the blog but also on the Facebook page for the blog. I don’t know why. Maybe I just really had nothing to say because my recent words had merely been written rather than released from my heart; they were no longer springing out of the transparent realities of God was teaching me and doing in my life.

The interesting thing about silence is that you can hear so much in the midst of it. You hear the words of others as they ring truths into your thoughts when you take the time to read their long-preserved volumes of knowledge. You gain the ability to finally hear—truly hear—the difference between the cries and laughter of your friends and family, even when those tones are wearing each other’s clothing to disguise their true identity. You hear the whispers of your heart as, with every beat, it repeats its passion in tones that intertwine with the steady (sometimes monotonous) flow of everyday routines and well-planned schedules.

And when you finally hear the beautiful symphony created by the blending of these silent sounds, you understand fully why our Lord Himself gently commanded us in Psalm 46:10 to “be still”—to “cease striving.” For it is in the midst of that stillness that we know—really, honestly, with-a-firsthand knowledge know—that He is God.

So in this week that includes a day set aside for gratitude and culminates with the conclusion of a month that has done the same, take a moment—many moments, if possible—to listen to and learn from the silence. It is there that you will know what you need to learn of Him through the quietness of that moment. It is there that you will learn to recognize the sounds that need to join together to create the melody of praise and gratitude that you were created to share.