It didn’t matter.
Nothing was working.
The tension mounted till I thought I might cry.
Why?!
My heart was crying out from the pain of another’s poor choices.
It didn’t ease until the other person broke
into
tears.
I suddenly realized they were as frustrated and confused and disappointed as I was.
-pause-
-think-
-feel-
-change-
I had been the one with all over prickles.
It was leftover from a recent experience which had left me distrusting same individual.
And this time, without realizing it, I’d come to our meeting with attitude.
Praise God for His compassion.
He spoke gently to my heart and I was able to look into the other person’s eyes and past all the poor behavior.
Then the Lord filled my heart with love for this struggling young soul.
“Okay, sit here next to me and I’ll help you.”
And we worked on.
It wasn’t easy.
But removing my previous distrust helped immensely.
And it’s taught me more about myself.
No matter how much I think I’m letting go of each experience of the day to day, they affect me.
It takes purposeful time before the Lord to clean my heart and mind of the hurt or disappointment or discouragement or whatever yucky which wants to cling to my soul and harden my heart towards others.
It takes being open to the Lord showing me the plank in my own eye.
And it’s humbling.
Beyond easy to point to the wrong in others.
Piercing is allowing Jesus to point to mine.
As I pray for today,
I’m asking Jesus to hone me,
and
to remove the
prickles.
patientlyhopeful 