No One Says You Have to be Perfect.....

Maybe it is just me, but I do not take well to being yelled at, being called names, having my character attacked, hurtful sarcasm, and most of all, people being hateful just because they have no harness on their thoughts, and no remorse to the things they say and do that crush other people. People like this, most of the time, crush others because they are so insecure and angry with who they already are that they see joy when they make others feel as miserable as they feel.

It's an age old lesson that we are taught from the time we are in grade school. Someone is picking on you on the playground and you go home upset about it, what do your parents say? I don't know about yours but my dad spoke to me like an adult, and told me these people were trying to bring me down to pick themselves back up. (Later on he told me I was allowed to punch anyone I wanted to who was physically harming me, and that if I got in trouble he would ALWAYS back me up! haha Maybe not the best parenting advice, but I never doubted that my daddy was on my side when I was doing what was RIGHT.)

We continue to learn this lesson in Jr High and Sr Highschool, when a mean girl spreads hateful and harmful rumors about you. You go home and cry on your bed for hours, and let the pain fester for weeks before telling your parents how awful it is and that you never want to go to school again. I don't know about you guys, but my dad always told me "to kill them with kindness" and it never actually made THEM hurt as bad as they had hurt me, but it always made me feel better about who I was.

Not that my school days were particularly drama-filled by any means, this is stuff I bet 9 out of 10 girls have dealt with too. It's just how girls are. But what happens when you are no longer a girl, but instead a young woman. A young woman who gets to choose her close circle of friends. A young woman who tries her best to love on everyone she encounters. A young woman who is devout in her faith, and striving every second to show others how much God loves them. Does this young woman have to worry about being crushed by "mean girls" on the playground?

I would like to say no, but I would be lying. Because I find myself struggling with this recently. Why do people we know are hurtful angry people, and whom we know do NOT give us our identity, why do we LET them get the better of us?

Once upon a time, there was a child who was left by her mother and abused by a man. There fighting and violence in her once stable household. There was fear, and emptiness, and heartache. When the young girl's stepmother entered the picture, things only worsened. The stepmother abused the young girl in every way that she knew how. She mentally traumatized the girl and everything the young child once held safe and true. There was nowhere to turn, no way to escape. Until one day....she did. Out on her own things were only slightly better, as people will go to any means necessary to make someone else miserable. The young girl was forever trapped inside of a nightmare.

You never know when this story is the past and present that someone has to deal with. You never know the pain and the torture that people have endured, people you walk alongside every single day. This is why the golden rule is doing unto others what you would have done unto you. I would call the above story a "fairytale" but it's not. It's a tragedy. And it's only a small part of my own tragedy.

Having endured a life like this, and healing from this type of living for so long, I would say that my heart is not only as strong as a thousand giants, but also as frail as a dying flower. I have survived alot (and not just me, so many people have this or worse backgrounds to them) so wonder daily, "Since I am old enough to get myself away from people who treat me like this, to own my own emotions, and to fight for the healing of my heart-do I still have to deal with this horror?"

And the answer is. Yes. Sadly, yes I do. Because there are always going to be mean girls on the playground. And there are always going to be wicked stepmother's. And no matter how good the deeds look on the outside that someone might be doing, people are not stupid and they know the truth. They know through your actions if you are hateful. They know through the ugly words that you use that you are angry. They know through your drama that you have gone through drama yourself. They know through the harsh texts, the useless fights, the knee-jerk reactions, the defensive conversations, the swearing, the dissatisfaction in things that are good, and just your everyday behavior-they KNOW if you are a "MEAN GIRL ON THE PLAYGROUND".

And it is ok. To those of us who are still that broken and upset child on the playground, who try and see and try and do GOOD in this world, we have a Heavenly Father on our side who has sent his angels in the Heavenlies to fight for justice, to fight for our souls, and to fight our battles. And to those of you who can't just be NICE to others, and let God enter your heart FULLY so that you will be transformed to a new person-to those of you, God LOVES you so much...and guess what? He is still fighting for YOU TOO! Just because you feel forgotten doesn't mean you are. But that does not mean too that you can stomp around treating other people so badly. Because then you are not dealing with the Heavenly Father who is fighting for you, you are dealing with the Wrathful God who will JUDGE you for the things you do and say on this earth.

No One says you have to be perfect. I am nowhere near perfection, and I know that. I see my flaws, I see my wounds, and I see my imperfections. But I also see and talk to a God who daily is correcting my flaws, healing my wounds, and making me perfect for Him through His Son.

The moral of this story. JUST BE NICE!
In Him,
Meg