Two oddball places God gives me some of my greatest revelations:
(1) the shower, when the water's heating up my brain, and
(2) the check-out line at Wal-Mart.
Now, there's no rhyme or reason to my shower-induced revelations. Topically, they run the gamut, from new homeschool strategies to scriptural insights to child psychology.
The revelations I've had in Wal-Mart's check-out line, on the other hand, almost always have to do with my personal shortcomings. Here are a few examples:
"I'm an impatient/inconsistent/terrible/etc. mother." (That one hits me whenever I scream at, threaten or, maybe worst of all, lose my children while unloading the grocery cart).
"I'm a total idiot." (I arrived at that little jewel of self-insight after shopping for $200 worth of groceries only to discover that I'd left every form of payment in some other purse at home).
"I will never live within a budget." (That, after spending over budget AGAIN because I just couldn't live without that Josh Groban CD.)
See what I mean?
But I had a very different sort of revelation in the Wal-Mart line just a few days before Christmas. It came as a result of a conversation I had with a really nice, professional-looking gentleman. Just as I finished filling the conveyor belt with my groceries, the man came up behind me. He could see that my transaction was going to take a while, so he asked the other guy with him to go over to customer service and purchase the gift cards they needed. Remember, Christmas was only days away.
Here's how the conversation went:
Gentleman, somewhat loudly, to the other guy as he walked away: "18. Tell them we need 18 100-dollar gift cards."
Me, jokingly: "Go ahead and make it 19, if you don't mind."
Gentleman, laughing: "From the looks of things, you'd spend it all right now."
Me: "Not hard to do, when you're feeding a family of six."
Gentleman: "I can't even imagine."
pause
Gentleman again: "So, what's the age range of the kids?"
Me: "12, 10, 5 and 3."
Gentleman: "Great. So you have at least two believers, then."
Me, surprised and excited at his question: "Yes, we do."
Him: "What about the 10-year-old?"
Me: "Oh, yes, he joined the church just a few weeks ago."
long pause
Him: "No. No. I mean't believers in Santa Claus."
Now, I wish I could report that I shared the gospel with him at this point or at least said something semi-spiritual. I didn't. Instead, I explained away my own response ("We don't do Santa Claus, never have. My husband works in full-time ministry, so my mind naturally goes that direction."). Then I paid for my groceries and headed out the door, beating myself up again: "I am such an idiot. I should have known what he was talking about. Do I even have a brain?"
And then the revelation hit: "My mind doesn't naturally turn to spiritual things; that's the Holy Spirit's doing. The Holy Spirit is turning my heart away from the things of the world and toward the things of God; that's why it didn't occur to me that the man mean't Santa Claus. God really is changing me, he really is changing his children. We are in this world, but we are not of it!
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4 comments:
Very cool, Laura! I love to read your posts. Truly.
I love your thoughts. They are so human
Motherhood is a loop that never ends and you never feel you have it quite right. You work hard building relationships, setting rules, striving to enhance the lives of your children, and then out of nowhere, you feel you have just blown days, months and years of hard work with one bad day, one degrading word, one poor me atitude or one slightly imperfect Motherly speech, you wish you could take back.
Motherhood is much like our relationship with Jesus Christ. We strive to be the best follower, we read His Words, we try to live His rules, we search our hearts for impurities, we confess our sins, and then, just when we think we are truly beginning to live our faith and our beliefs, a cold wind of doubt, a drop of lust or covetness, a sharp pain of regret, a mountain of problems buries us, Our Faith is tested. As your children constantly test you so does God. God sent the Walmart man. He has to be pleased your thoughts was of Him.
You witnessed to this man, without quoting one verse. You witness with your belief and your lifestyle. We will pray this man who God placed in your path will seek to know more about the real meaning of Christmasand beliving. For me, I am proud to know my Grandchildren are in a home where Christ is not just talked, but lived.
Mrs. M
Laura, you should write a book. Your postings are so real and make me yearn for more! It's ok to feel like an idiot sometimes....it's in those times that your pointed right back to the Gospel.
I can so relate. There are so many times that I feel so inadequate in every area of life. This is when the Holy Spirit prompts me that without Christ, I AM inadequate. Without Him, I have no choice but to mess up. How cool that He gives us HImself!!!
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