I don't have one. Truthfully my heart is more like a well-guarded castle than a flowering garden. This isn't even something I have worked on intentionally. I don't have any huge hurt in my past that I am trying to protect. I just tend to think about projects more than people. And, projects don't generally have feelings.
That is probably why God gave me a son who has a sensitive heart. I mean he is even left-handed. Can you get more flowery and artsy than that?! It has taken me a while to understand this, mostly because this sensitive kid is also very loud. He aggressively seeks his own way in the world, and when the world (namely his parents) does not conform, well bad things tend to happen. So, my kid has become one of those nice paradoxes that I love... a loud, intensely-tempered, yet very sensitive kid. I know that he is helping me look into my own heart, revealing things that God wants to work in me.
He is also helping me to remember that everything is not how it seems on the outside. Too often I give quick, shallow judgements of people based on very limited information. When people first meet my son they generally say, "Wow! That is the happiest kid I have ever seen" or "Whoa! What is up with the huge tantrum, don't you know how to parent?!" Ok, so nobody has actually said the last one, but I see them thinking it! And then I judge them based on that information ;). The fact is my kid is both of those things and way more, and unless you take the time to get to know him you will have an incomplete picture.
So, the next time I meet that incredibly rude person at Wal-Mart, perhaps I will take a moment to consider that this may not be the complete picture, and if I could see them completely as God can then I would see that they are a part of His creation and He has a plan for their life.
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