Broken, But Not

I still haven’t fully determined if I was a tomboy as a child or just clumsy. It may have been a little of both. I was the youngest of my three siblings and felt honor-bound to be able to keep up with my older brother. If that meant I had bumps, scrapes, and bruises I couldn’t explain to my parents, that was the cost of doing business. 

There are a few scars I have where I can recall the exact circumstances leading up to to the injury and even the healing process. When I was a small child, I was burned by some grease that sprang free from a frying pan as I went strolling through the kitchen. It resulted in a series of welts on my little arm. My mom and her cousin wrestled with the idea of treating them over time with burn cream and other treatments. My father had an idea as well. Regardless, my mom and her cousin did the opposite which resulted in my carrying those scars for the rest of my childhood. Although they’ve finally begun to fade in recent years, I still see them and recall why they are there. 

That’s what scars sometimes do for us. We can’t help but recall a past choice or, in some cases, a past trauma that resulted in the scar. Yet, for many of us, we survived. There are certainly other injuries where the amount of blood at the time could have been life altering. Yet, when I look at the scar left behind, it seems small and insignificant. Sometimes, the situation was completely avoidable. Now that the injury has healed, I can look back and laugh on it. I can also, however, look back and recognize what I should have done differently. So those scars also serve as reminders of lessons learned.

Amazingly, we don’t always view all of our past miscalculations that way. We can become our own worst credit when we don’t make the best choice. In some of those cases, it is very likely that the choice wasn’t ours alone but it still had a lasting impact on us. The more I begin to look on some of my own physical scars and reflect, the more I’m able to recognize that this is the same type of healing that can be afforded to my emotional scars. I don’t have to continue to carry those troubles, woes, and worries through life as excess baggage. Healing is an option.

Have you ever experienced a trial or a hardship in life, perhaps at work, that plagued you for a long time? I know I have. I struggled with a decision. I wondered if I made the right one or if a better option was available. I’ve dreaded meetings with my boss. I’ve been there. I’ve also gone through some of those experiences and, when it was over, was left with a feeling of…that’s all? I’ve felt the same thing in school before with a quiz or an exam. I worked myself up into believing I was unprepared and wasn’t ready, only to discover that I was. That’s how we treat ourselves at times. We really can become our own worst critic. 

Those experiences have helped me continue to learn that going through the trouble is just as important as getting through it. We sometimes shift our focus immediately to the end result and that may make us miss out on some valuable teachable moments within the struggled. Now, I will acknowledge that that is not easy. No one wants their struggle or hardship to last long. However, there could be a lesson in it that God needs us to learn in order to prepare us for something else in our future. Remember that overcoming is an option, even when it’s hurting. In the end, you’ll be able to look back on that situation and remember if God got me through that, he can get me through this. 

Stay Sunny!

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