Wounded

My son is amazing at finding ways to get dirty. Filthy. The only thing he hasn't done is the legendary "Smear my poo all over myself, my cribs and the walls while Mommy thinks I'm still sleeping" move. (That one was for you, Michelle. I remember that picture you posted of Emily!)

(Here's a picture of my cousin's gorgeous daughter Emily having a not-so-gorgeous moment)
I figured he just decided to save that one for Ainsley to use on me eventually. I know my days are numbered.

He's managed to make quite a mess in other ways. When he was about 10 months old he managed to paint an entire kitchen with Nutella in oh, about five seconds. Not even exaggerating.

Another time he pulled an ice cream container out of the trash and danced around in the melted ice cream drippings that leaked on the floor. Mmm... Moosetracks.

When he was two he literally spent the entire summer in a hole filled with mud in our back yard.

He's the kid with grass stains on his linen Easter suit and a perpetual chocolate milk mustache. He lives hard, he plays hard, and you can tell.

So I really shouldn't have been surprised about what happened today. This past weekend we got quite the dump of snow. Not Tennessee snow. I'm talking four feet. In two and a half days. Everything is covered.

There are mountains of snow everywhere from the plows trying to keep up. Dawson Creek looks like a miniature version of the alps. With hunters in camo and rig guys driving big trucks instead of blondes with braided pigtails and lederhosen.

The temperature had jumped up quite a bit in the past day or so (from about -25 to 41 degrees!) so I finally let Aidan out to play. All you can see is white. For miles and miles. It's like Narnia, but instead of Mr. Tumnus and other mythical creatures we have moose.

I digress. So I threw Aidan off of our back porch into the sea of snow. (I didn't really because I didn't want anyone to call Child Services, but I was mighty tempted. I'm pretty sure Aidan would have loved it.) I let him do his thing for a while in the back yard until he knocked on the door about 45 minutes later. He was cold and ready to come in.

I lead him inside and start helping him remove his winter gear. His muddy, muddy winter gear. Wait a second. There's four feet of snow outside. How on EARTH did he manage to find mud? His coat is splattered. His mittens are completely covered. I open the door to look on the outside of it. Yep. It looks like a mud monster was murdered on the back porch. Little mud hand prints are displayed perfectly on the white door.

I ball my hands into fists and breathe out slowly.

Aidan.

How? How did he do it?

Everything is white. Everything is clean. Except him. He found the mud. It's like he has a mud divining rod.

Tonight I went to coffee with my best friend and had a great talk with her. I was telling her that I was trying to get rid of the bad attitude I could feel festering inside of me. I knew there were situations in my life where I was wounded.

We've all been there before. Where someone says or does something that hurts us, whether they meant to or not. They unknowingly leave behind an open wound. We try to deal with the pain, but if it's not taken care of it just keeps getting worse. We become bitter and look for ways to be hurt by that person again to feed our grudge. To meet the need for justification of our anger.

We find ways to manipulate the most harmless of situations to suit our purposes. We are surrounded by snow, but somehow we dig up the mud. We're supposed to seek reconciliation in relationships. Not vengeance. God calls us to live at peace with everyone. To act out of love. Not out of bitterness.

Do your part to live in peace with everyone, as much as possible.
Romans 12:18

Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and sympathetic?
Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one heart and purpose.
Philipians 2:1-2

The last scripture is so vital to the health and effectiveness of the body of Christ. The church. Not only that, but our individual lives as well. Bitterness breaks you. We must have a heart that is tender; not cold, hard and bitter. We must work together, loving each other. If we don't it will hinder the purpose God has given us. It will destroy unity in the body of Christ.

We can't waste time licking our wounds.

How do we deal with them, then?

In 2 Corinthians chapter 2, Paul brings up a man who has obviously caused deep heartache to the church in the past. Paul had written the church before about him, instructing them to somehow punish or censure this person for his misdeed. The church was obviously wounded deeply by him, but now we see that this man was repentant of his sins and in turn was also suffering.

The church in Corinth was a church of extremes. Paul said to separate themselves from this person, so they did. So Paul had to encourage them to offer forgiveness and love to this man as well.

I am not overstating it when I say that the man who caused all the trouble hurt your entire church more than he hurt me.
He was punished enough when most of you were united in your judgment against him.
Now it is time to forgive him and comfort him. Otherwise he may become so discouraged that he won't be able to recover.
Now show him that you still love him.
2 Corinthians 2:5-8.

Now is the time to forgive.

Now is the time to heal.

God is calling us to put aside the bitterness that we've been clinging to so desperately.

God is drawing us to greater things; to heights we will never reach if our unforgiveness continues to weigh us down.

What wounds are you holding onto?

Do you see the snow? Or are you looking for the mud?