Wow!!!! Was I suprised when I came on after not having been here in a few months to find this post. I have been struggling for months trying to figure out what God is telling me to do. Just when I think I've figured it out then something happens that tells me I am all wrong. Recently I quit a critique group that I have been in for about a year, was on the verge of quitting a writer's group, postponed joining a prayer group all beccause I thought God was pushing me in a different direction. I was attempting to start up a writing group that would meet face to face on a regular basis and I was asked to be a Stephen Minister at our church. Both of these endeavors will take a lot of time and I felt as if I needed to shed some other things so I could devote myself to these along with my writing and babysitting and raising a preschooler. So I cleared a lot of my other commitments away. Then the new writer's group that I was trying to pull together started to fall apart and the Stephen Ministry training doesn't start till fall. So here I was with nothing. (or so I thought.) I was even believing that my anxiety was turning into depression and I would need to change or increase the drugs I was taking.
I prayed fervently still unsure about the direction I was supposed to take.
Any way to make a long story a little shorter, The writer's group didn't completely fall apart. The other two interested women and I have decided to put it on hold until July. The Stephen Ministry thing of course is on hold until Fall and I hope by that time that things will have worked out with my daughter so I can pursue it. If not then God has other plans for me and hopefully will reveal them.
My daughter's depression is acting up again in a pretty serious way, so I'm thinking that was God's message for me. I needed time to devote to my family and myself first and things will work out in his time and I need to be patient.
Coming to this conclusion has helped me a great deal because after a period of not writing very much for a couple of months now I actually have written two articles in the last five days one of which is already posted and the other should be posted next week if not sooner.
I feel such relief at being able to write again and hope that after my vacation next week I can get all my ducks in a row and start writing and submitting again.
So anyway to answer the question, I find that God has to gently yell at me for me to hear his whispers. Someday I pray that I will get the message on the first gentle whispers instead of waiting for the gentle yells. Until then though I guess I'll have to turn the hearing aids up.
Thanks for posting this at this point in time. We all need gentle reminders to listen harder and question less.

Thanks Bunches
From someone who can be very hard of
hearing,
Angel(Chris Weigand)