All Wrapped Up

Today on the way home from speech therapy for Olivia, she was fussing in the car, mostly because she was way past due on her nap. She kept saying "ga-goo" her word for food (which I am continually correcting her about). Anywho...she is fussing for food so I reached for a lollipop we had received at the bank, still in it's wrapper, and I hand it to her. I wanted to avoid all the mess, and stickiness of unwrapping the lollipop for her, so I just handed it to her, wrapper and all. She stares at it for a few seconds, and then sticks it into her mouth, wrapper included. I knew we were close enough to home that she wouldn't be able to get it off before we got out. I felt so releaved that I had avoided another mess, and a whole lot of stickiness.

Then right before turning into my drive-way the Lord brought a thought to my mind that was very convicting. I felt the Holy Spirit impressing to me how often I try to avoid the "messiness" in other areas of my life by avoiding things like community and friendships because they can become sticky and not always be pleasant or fit into my little "box". I know this seems like a jump but the Lord has really been working on me about this... I groaned because I knew the Lord was right, and I knew I was going to have to do something with this conviction. So often in my life, I avoid situations where I know I will have to be vulnerable or reveal myself on a deeper level, this is my way of avoiding life's sticky moments. I try to keep my "shell" or "wrapper" about myself, so that I don't have to be truly transparent outside my own family. The Lord showed himself again to me in the smallest act of giving my child a lollipop with the wrapper still on.

So my prayer is that the Lord would bring times in my life where I can live out my repentance, and be truly vulnerable with others in his body. Community if done in the right way, is a beautiful thing and is very honoring to our Lord, it's a chance to show redemption, grace, and acceptance to others. As mothers, it is easy to get so caught up in the day to day that we forget the vital importance of friendships and community with others who might spur us on to a greater and fuller relationship with our Lord. We forget to be seeking out those opportunities to be mentored by "older" and wiser women (Titus 2). I don't want to live my life so inside my self and my own little world, that I forget to look-up and take the "wrapper off," to engage in life change through community, the way our God intended!