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!

The Deeper Pond

When you first observe a pond it is mysterious. You have no idea what depth it has or whether it will refresh you or not. By wading into it you begin to learn what the pond has to offer. This is actually what life is like as well. My hope is that together we can wade into life's pond and learn the depth together. Perhaps by looking at the gifts each day offers, we can start to see how even the most simple thing can change your life.

Like a pond each of us has different levels to who and what we are. I enjoy looking into the levels of myself and others and learning about the depths we have. I also like to mix in a bit of my faith journey along the way. I believe that faith is very personal and that the best way to bring others to God is by quiet example. Many times I have been faced with people who have a strong faith and they were eager to share it with every one around them. You see we all come to God in our own time and no one person can make that happen for someone else. Most times it is a chain of people that gently and sometimes even unknowingly turn a persons heart to God and then God does the rest.

I hope that what I write in the months to come helps start that chain for someone. I also hope that what I write here as I start to step into lifes pond with you, will begin to peel back the layers and together we can learn to swim through this journey.