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We will have opportunities to listen to people who have our best interest in mind. These individuals may be our parents, teachers, coaches or anyone with more life experience who has taken the role of mentor. You can choose to listen to these individuals, or not, but eventually you will discover that not listening can lead to you feeling like the world is burning around you. French Fries taught me this valuable lesson. You're probably wondering, how so. Let me explain.

When I was a kid, my mama was about to take my sister to basketball practice. She was letting me stay home, so I could complete my homework. Before leaving, she said, "Jr. make sure you do your homework before you start playing video games. If you get hungry, there's some chips, peanut butter, and jelly in the kitchen. Don't turn on the stove while I'm gone. Did you hear me?" "Yes"

She and my sister walked out of the house, got in the car, and drove off. I ran to my room and started playing video games. Thirty minutes into my game, I became hungry, so I decided to go to the kitchen to make myself a sandwich.

When I walked into the kitchen, my 12-year-old mind got what I thought was a great idea. "Mama doesn't think I can cook on the stove without her being here. So I will prove her wrong by cooking some French Fries. They should be ready by the time she gets home. I'll stand at the door with the fries on a plate, and she will be shocked and proud of my accomplishment."

This vision of me giving my mama freshly cooked fries motivated my disobedience. I grabbed the bag of frozen fries out of the freezer, a frying pan, and a bottle of cooking oil. I placed some fries in the pan and poured some cooking oil on top of them. I wasn't sure how high to set the stove, so I cranked it to the highest possible level.

I heard a knock at the door, "Who is it?" "It's Timmy." I opened the door, and my friend Timmy, who was 5 feet 10 inches tall and with dark skin, was standing at the door with a smile on his face. "What's up Timmy?" "Check it out, bro. My daddy bought me a car for my 16th Birthday." "Bro, for real!" "Yeah!" Hey, come ride with me to the store." "How long will we be gone because I'm cooking some French Fries." "We will be gone no more than 10 minutes." "Ok".

We got into Timmy's car and headed towards the store. Instead of us being gone for 10 minutes, we were gone for an hour. He dropped me off at home. I went into the kitchen, looked into the frying pan, and the French Fries were black as night and the cooking oil was red like lava from a volcano.

The pan was so hot that its plastic handle started to melt. I panicked, so I ran to the refrigerator, got the entire jug of Kool-Aid and poured some into the steaming cooking oil hoping to cool it. When the Kool-Aid made contact with the oil, I knew I made a mistake because I was surrounded by a gigantic fireball. Fear overtook my mind and I questioned whether I was going to live.

I dropped the jug of Kool-Aid as thick black smoke burned my eyes. The black smoke covered the entire kitchen, and it felt like the world was burning around me. I stopped and dropped to the floor and started crawling beneath the smoke like a snake slithering beneath a door. I reached the front door, opened it as my mama was pulling into the driveway.

She got out of the car and started shouting, "JR! WHAT IN THE WORLD DID YOU DO?" Before I could respond, she grabbed the water hose, ran into the house and put out the fire.

After I confessed my disobedience, she banned me from playing my video game until I cleaned all the smoke stains from the walls of the kitchen and other parts of the house. French Fries taught me a valuable lesson; not listening can cause the world to burn around you.

Although listening seems like a difficult task, it's one of the most powerful skills we can learn. If you take the time to listen to those who have more knowledge or life experiences, and they have your best interest at heart, it will be to your advantage. Because this can save you a lot of time and save you from the wrath of the consequences you may face for not listening.

Who you choose to listen to is a personal choice. It's up to you to make that decision based on your own discernment. I don't want to inhibit your right to listen or not; however, I do want to challenge your impulse not to listen that's based on stubbornness or pride.

These questions are referring to only those individuals who are experienced and that you know have your best interest at heart. 

1) Write down an area of your life where you refuse to listen to the advice of others.

2) Write the names of individuals who have tried to give you advice in this area.

3) The most common reasons you refuse to listen to any of their advice include: 

4) Putting aside your reasons for not listening, what benefit do you think you may obtain if you gave their advice a chance?

5) Challenge yourself by giving the individuals you chose advice a chance. Then write down the outcomes you experienced.

Listening can be challenging but the advice that others give us maybe the key to keeping the world from burning around us. So I encourage you to listen to wise counsel because You Are WORTHY TO BE GREAT!