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Typically, as my turn comes around to write this column, I have two or three ideas with which to get started.  

Often they are related to things I have seen or heard while walking, hiking, or riding my bicycle.  Many are the times when, walking around Holliday Lake or other beautiful Virginia natural settings, I have had an idea and bowed my head in gratitude for heavenly help.

However, this month I did not have any of those starter ideas.  

As I pondered why this might be, I remembered that I had recently purchased a set of Bluetooth earphones.  For the past several weeks, while walking in the early morning and riding my bike, I have listened to audiobooks.  

Listening to audiobooks is not, of course, a problem in itself.  But it did limit the quiet that I had previously enjoyed during my walks, times of stillness when the Lord could whisper to my mind and heart.  

Unfortunately, in our busy world today, with so many streams of information and entertainment, we can seek to fill every quiet moment with some form of diversion and distraction, crowding out the opportunities for God to speak to us and work through us.

As the Psalmist wrote:  “Be still, and know that I am God” (46:10).  

Elder David A. Bednar, an Apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, recently taught about the need for greater stillness in our lives.  

He said:  “I believe the Lord’s admonition to ‘be still’ entails much more than simply not talking or moving.  Perhaps His intent is for us to remember and rely upon Him and His power…Thus, ‘be still’ may  be a way of reminding us to focus upon the Savior unfailingly as the ultimate source of the spiritual stillness of the soul that strengthens us to do and overcome hard things.”

He further testified:  “As the foundation of our lives is built upon the Savior, we are blessed to ‘be still’–to have a spiritual assurance that God is our Heavenly Father, we are His children, and Jesus Christ is our Savior.”

Jesus set the example for finding times for quiet and stillness, especially when seeking inspiration and guidance.  

Just before He performed the miracle of walking on the water, “He went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the even was come, he was there alone” (14:23).  

Likewise, just before calling His twelve apostles:  “He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God” (6:12-16). 

He also sought stillness as He began the great work of suffering for the sins of all mankind in the Garden of Gethsemane, where He “saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder” (Matthew 26:36).  

May we each give God room to speak to us by seeking opportunities for stillness in our lives.

Dr. Brent Roberts is the Bishop of the Sandy River Ward, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and also Assistant Provost for Academic Outreach and Dean of Greenwood Library at Longwood University. He can be reached at brentsroberts@hotmail.com.