Hitting Glass

He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake. – Ps 23

Don’t you love summer pool parties? The kind with kids running in and out, men grilling burgers and women slicing watermelon. There’s always music playing loudly, and a dad yelling, “Shut the door!!” every time someone goes outside. Belly flop contests and Marco Polo rule the pool. And then, there is that one person who is distracted by the music, someone handing them a drink or wondering whether or not they have a cool swimsuit and they don’t notice the butterfly sticker on the the sliding glass door….

Smack!!! Forehead hits glass.

If it’s a child, people groan. If it’s an adult, people quietly snicker.

I actually know someone who once ran straight through a sliding glass door. He was going so fast that he wasn’t even scratched by the shards of glass. He didn’t realize what had happened until he turned around.

It can be hard to see a clear glass wall. Especially with all that craziness going on around you.

There are a lot of those invisible walls in life. They are hard to see coming. We walk through life making choices, and looking for opportunities and open doors, and the doors that look more like empty space can be hard to see.

My oldest son is growing up so quickly I can hardly hold on to the moments. Jude doesn’t need a “mommy” so much the days, he needs a cheerleader/mom. Our first baby is growing up. He makes jokes that are actually funny. He has friends whose moms I don’t know personally. He goes places without me and has a whole world of school and sports growing up around him. Thankfully, there are doors into that growing world. Some of them are made of glass, though.

Morgan and I have crashed through an invisible wall. We have a very mature, sweet boy who needs us in all kinds of new ways. My heart swells with joy when I see a new way to connect with him and be who he needs me to be. I am overjoyed when I see him look at Morgan with security and admiration in his eyes. I am so proud of who Jude is becoming, every day.

I want to be a mom whose stories are worth telling. I want to show my children how to have a stellar marriage and how to be a brave daughter of an amazing God. Every day I get chances to be those things. Sometimes those chances are very illusive and they hide from me. If I don’t look for those doors, I will walk by them or crash through them.

Make no mistake about it, we are all building our own lives, moment by moment, choice by choice. If we let the noise and action around us distract us we might not see the best chances to be who we want to be. We might get knocked down and people may laugh. There is even the possibility we could get mangled by the shards of glass in our unforeseen circumstances.

If we focus on who and where we are and on Who is leading us, God’s grace will help us see the glass walls or find our feet again. We will learn that we are going to be ok. In fact, we are going to be more than ok. We will be glorious.

The party has only just begun. Choose well.