Life is often humorous and I thank God for those "moments of laughter" he inserts into our lives. The other day my daughter was taking a bath and I heard the bathroom door open and then close. Wondering what she was up to, I opened the bathroom door to find her mopping the floor, which is unusual enough, and stark naked, at that. I asked her why she was mopping and she told me that she had gotten water all over the floor and decided to save me the work of having to clean it up. I thanked her sweetly, closed the door, and tried to stifle my giggles at the funny sight she made. I was both amused and touched by her thoughtfulness (getting her to clean ANYTHING is usually a struggle).
I meditated on grace a lot this week. Grace is a funny thing. It never quite works as we would expect it to. I wrote a bit about this in my last post. I'm often puzzled by the different avenues of approach God uses to help people grow and it often doesn't make sense to me until after he's finished. I'm coming to realize that God is very accepting of our human nature, including our individual "quirks" and peccadilloes. He is not seeking to so much change what makes us unique and different as He is trying to show us how these things can be used for the good if we trust Him. God doesn't often change someone who's shy into an extrovert but rather, uses our existing traits. As in "grace building upon nature". I once read an article online that equated shyness with selfishness and this horrified me a bit. Did he do some kind of formal study on this? No, it was a personal opinion. Selfishness (do any of us completely escape this?) seems to be a common denominator among fallen human beings so my guess is that this fellow must be:
An angel in disguise, maybe?
Or perhaps he was pre-redeemed or something.
Lucky guy.
Loved the story about your little girl. And shyness is not selfishness. Grace does indeed build on nature. God uses each one of us to spread the good news of salvation in however way He wants. He puts us here in the time, place, and families to do what He has called us to do. Some of us are more introverted and some more extroverted. It is all for His glory. I don't think we should criticize others for how they are because we cannot read their hearts and we do not know what job God has for them.
ReplyDeleteAmen! Well said, Barb!
ReplyDeleteHi Colleen,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link! Hopefully it's a bit more positive than the other one I read :)
I'm so shy when I see rugby/football players in a huddle on the playing field I think they're talking about me.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. God bless.
I think shyness has been a blessing to me, especially in my pre-conversion days. I was bad enough morally, but God knows how worse it could have been if I had not been so shy and self-conscious, and afraid of rejection at the time. I think my shyness helped to restrain me!
ReplyDeleteGood one, Victor :)
ReplyDeletePip,
ReplyDeleteInteresting point! You know what? My shyness saved me from a lot, too! I didn't look at it from this angle so I appreciate the comment!
Funny post. Was laughing at the story of your daughter.
ReplyDelete(Bonus points for using the word "peccadilloes" in a post!)
God Bless
Michael,
ReplyDeleteSnicker! I always wanted to use that word (along with alas and alack) but could never find an opportunity ;) Too bad we don't get real points! What good are words if you can't use them?
How is my Mary? Thank you for sharing such a precious story dear one and at the same time laughing regarding your daughter. Blessings to you dear one.
ReplyDeleteHi JBR! I'm doing well! I hope you are well, too :) Michaela is on school vacation this week so it's going to be hard to find much time to post. At least this week she has forgotten about the chihuahua thing - what a relief ;)
ReplyDelete"He is trying to show us how these things can be used for the good if we trust Him"
ReplyDeleteTHIS IS AWESOME.