Yesterday I wrote about the importance of writing down the significant events in your life – those moments when you cannot deny God’s hand was involved.

It got me thinking about something I’ve seen in my own life: sometimes I’m a better noticer than at other times.

That is, sometimes I’m paying attention. And sometimes I’m not.

Attention has become extraordinarily valuable in recent years.

EVERYTHING and EVERYONE wants your attention.

And with all the ‘click-bait,’ flashy signs, superlative descriptions, and every other attention-grabbing technique, our ability to focus on a single thing seems to be dropping precipitously.

I suspect many people’s ability to focus has become so weak that they almost feel like they cannot control it.

Attention darts from one thing to the next without any real constraint. It feels completely passive.

But attention is something that can be and must be controlled.

In fact, if you’re going to succeed in nearly anything in your life, you have to develop the ability to tune out distraction and focus on the task at hand.

It’s a discipline, for sure.

And I wish every middle school had a class on it.

I wonder how many kids would no longer have to be drugged up on ADHD meds if they were actually taught and trained to control their attention.

I don’t know, just a thought.

Anyway, attention in all areas of life is important. But regarding our topic at hand, I believe that if we are going to see God move in our lives, we need to train ourselves to look for it.

We have to be paying attention.

Stay tuned to the next post where I’ll share how to know what’s important.