With Honesty and Confidence
As I helped with a summer camp at a local school last week, I got to spend time with several 4 and 5 year olds. As is typical with children, I got to hear many fun conversations and phrases. Typically, these are just fun to smile at and move along, but one stood out to me as different.
One little girl brought a bracelet with a snap clasp on it to camp. As we sat outside while others played, she was trying to put her bracelet on in different ways. As she took her shoe off and put the bracelet around her foot, the clasp gave way. With a small laugh and smile, she said confidently, “Look! It came unclosed.” I asked her to repeat herself because the use of the word seemed odd to me, she said it again.
Honestly, “unclosed” sounded so odd to me that I had to question if it is a real word because we do not often use it that way. As you know, we would normally say, “It came open.” What she said was not wrong; it was just out of the ordinary. It was different and stood out because of the directness and clarity that came with it. This caused me to think about us in our grief.
Everyone walks through grief at some point in life, but no two grief journeys are the same and there is no right or wrong way to grieve. As believers, we know that we get to walk with confidence in our grief and be direct in our conversations with God and others. Let us look at an example from David in Psalm 51:17:
“My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.”
This verse serves as a good and needed reminder that we get to be honest with God and show Him the hurt we are experiencing. Of course we know that we can bring all of ourselves to God, but too often, it seems we must sugar coat our feelings or desires or only be joyful when praying; especially around others. Let this be a reminder that is not the case.
Maybe, in our honesty and boldness with God, both alone and in front of others, He will use us as an encouragement to others that are walking through their own struggles. Maybe our honesty and directness will stand out as odd to others. Maybe it will not. No matter what way God decides to use us, let us find joy in knowing He will use our ordinary and honest conversations with Him in unexpected ways. Maybe it will be something new revealed to us by being honest with Him, or maybe it will be a new encouragement to others, but all we have to do is show up as we are and speak the truth of our circumstances with honesty and confidence.
