EXPOSED!!!!!

As parents, we come across numerous times in our kids' lives that while serious, we can hardly keep ourselves from bursting out in laughter.  You know those moments. . . . when your child has disobeyed, or done something they shouldn't have. . . . and it is definitely time for them to learn a life lesson, but the picture before you, just causes your spirit within to laugh because of the absurdity of the situation.  Years ago, my sister had sent my daughter a box of 1000 stickers.  My daughter and I had talked about how she could use them for pictures or decorating letters etc. but I didn't want to see them on the walls etc.  Yes, she nodded her head in agreement.  After finishing up the dishes, I returned to the sitting room where my not quite one-year old son was resting in a bouncy chair, to find him covered in stickers.  Over a hundred of them for sure.  I needed to deal with the disobedience, but OH MY was that picture priceless! 

I had such a situation again the other day.  My children are older now - and of course much wiser than my daughter was at 3 years old!  As we sat down to supper one evening, I looked across the table at my son and saw that his eyes looked different than usual.  Now, if you have met my son, you know he has these beautiful long eyelashes than any of us girls would crave to have.  They are full, dark and beautiful.  But that day, there was something off about how he looked - almost as if he had make up on or something.  I couldn't quite put my finger on it, and when I asked him if he had makeup on, he said no, and asked why I thought that.  I told him it looked darker under his bottom lashes, but he said no, and since I really couldn't put my finger on it, I left it.  He had had a play at school that he had performed a couple days earlier, and I thought perhaps he may have had makeup on that day and it still lingered a little.

Later on that evening. . . the truth came out.  As I was finishing up teaching piano, my husband came with my son and commented that my son would have to tell me what had happened. As he came into the piano room, I saw dark streaks running down his face!!  Completely surprised, but not wanting to laugh, I asked him what happened. He said he and his sister had been playing downstairs and he had gotten hurt.  He had started to cry. . . . and that is where the supper time lie began to unravel.  As the tears rolled out from under his lashes, mascara began to wash off of his lashes, leaving a trail of black streaks.  His lie had been revealed.  In broken tears, he admitted to me that he had lied at supper about the make up and that he had indeed been looking through my makeup basket and found a bottle labeled mascara and read that it was for eye lashes.  He said he had put some one, but thought no one would ever find out.  Well, I have to admit, laughter was welling through my heart!!  The sight of him standing there with big black streaks running down his cheeks was quite comical.  However. . . . the issue behind those streaks was not comical at all.  Of course we dealt with it at that moment and you can be sure he will NEVER be trying my makeup again, or at least lying about trying it!!!  After we finished praying about it, he asked me, "Mom, how do you always find out when I'm lying.  Even when I am sure you will never find out, most of the times you do!"  Ah my dear son. . . . that is just what a mother does!  Okay, so that's not what I told him - but what I did tell him is that God knows it's my job to care for and teach my children, and I truly believe that God brings incidents like this one to my attention, so that I CAN teach them.  That I can train him in the way that God wants him to go.

In the days following this episode, I couldn't help but smile as I envisioned his streaked face.  But it also made me think of how we perceive God.  I know my son does things at times that he is SURE we will never find out.  But am I not like that with God?  As I thought about that, I initially thought that no - I wouldn't do that.  But as I thought about what it would be like to have my whole life laid out before God.  Laid out there bare for Him to see.  All the deeds.  Good, bad, ugly.  Right out there bare for Him to see.  How would I feel?  As I pondered over all those things that I would love to sweep under the carpet, I was struck by how absurd that thought was.  Because all my deeds ARE laid out bare for God to see.  In fact, it's more than my deeds. It's my thoughts.  It's the motives behind my deeds.  It's everything.  I truly think that most times, I deceive myself by thinking that God is not aware of what I'm doing.  I go about my daily activities really doing as I please.  I'm not saying that it's all wrong things or negative things. But I just do as I please.  I haven't really given my day, my moments over to God.  And in the process, I do mess up.  I do go about doing things that really do not bring honor or glory to Him.  And I ignore the fact of how it affects Him.  In my previous post, I commented about what God must have felt when He created Adam & Eve only to have them choose Satan over obedience to Him.  And yet. . . so often that is what I do.  Oh it might not be that big deliberate heinous sin, but it's those little ones.  The ones we tend to think aren't so bad.  The ones that we really never even ask for forgiveness for because we see them as not too bad.

Like my son, I think I can hide from God. I can just ignore those areas in my life that need His attention!  I ignore the subtle areas that don't "appear" as gross sins, but that really are what color my very existence day to day.  

Hebrews 4:12-13 reads like this: 

¹² The word of God is living and active. It is sharper than any sword that has two edges. It cuts deep enough to separate soul from spirit. It can separate joints from bones. It judges the thoughts and purposes of the heart. ¹³ Nothing God created is hidden from him. His eyes see everything. He will hold us accountable for everything we do.

WOW!  If I truly lived my life with those verses as my motto, I think my life would be a very different story.

Sometimes there are areas in our lives that we aren't even aware we are hiding from God.  Areas that we need God to expose and show us. But as verse 13 states He will hold us accountable for EVERYTHING we do.  Not just the stuff we are aware of, but everything.

Won't you join me today to ask God to expose those things to us?  Let's keep these verses in the forefront of our minds as we go about our every day lives.  Let's give God all those areas of our lives that we'd rather hide, stuff down.  Let's give them to Him and ask Him to take control of those areas.  With His strength, we can conquer these areas too, and bring Him glory in doing so.  Let's get God to get right into those ugly spots of our lives - visible or invisible - and have God take over.  Let Him change us so that we can face God each day knowing we are striving to become more and more like Him.

Let's expose our lives to Him - so that those "black streaks" in our lives can be wiped away.  Replaced by the glow of serving Him!!!