Judgement Day

I recently had the pleasure of attending my middle daughters 9th grade registration day with her. It was an anxious morning for me, it has been 6 years since I was at the high school with my oldest daughter and I wanted to make it through the registration process without looking like a total dork and embarrassing my daughter. On top of that the thought of another daughter making her way through high school and then college made me want to grab my wallet and run, but that is beside the point.

As we made our way through the maze of stations set up to confuse you and take your money I started looking at the other young girls my daughter’s age. The variety of attire was astounding! As we stood in the line for her to have her yearbook picture taken I noticed two girls ahead of us, one was wearing a strappy tank top (with several colorful bra straps showing) that announced a brand name from a famous lingerie store and the other had on a tight t-shirt that announced the name of a famous trendy retail store in sequins. Both of these tops were in a hot pink color. I was shocked that these girls were about to have their pictures taken and forever be remembered as the “hooch girls”. At that point I turned to my daughter and shared with her my thoughts.

I am sure you are familiar with the saying “out of the mouths of babes” and at that moment it was the truth. My daughter looked at me and said “Wow Mom, maybe you need to go back to high school and work through the judgment phase!” Wow, the truth hurts. I consider myself a fairly evolved person, I try to give others the benefit of the doubt and be as open minded as I can be. Yet here I was in my daughter’s school cafeteria acting out a scene from the “Mean Girls” movie.

That moment has stuck with me. I have no doubt that God was working in that moment. It always amazes me how he shows up in my life. He does not tap me on the shoulder and say “Hey, knock that off”; he quietly works through my daughter or some other unsuspecting person or event. There are two things that have stuck with me about that very tiny moment in time. First, it had a profound effect on me about how God shows up, and in how I was thinking, second I knew that my work with my daughter was paying off, even if the student was teaching the teacher that day.

I guess the best news is that my daughter chose to wear a nice three quarter length sleeve top for pictures. And that she made that choice with out my help. Me standing there judging others was not going to change the girls or their outfits it was only making me look small and mean to my daughter. The fact that she was able to make a pretty yet modest choice with out my help means that I am on the right track so far. I can not hope to change anyone by talking about them behind their back, but maybe just maybe my daughter can lead by example and start a new fashion trend. In the mean time, I am going to just sit back quietly and watch!