My girl Haven is a Sweetie Pie.  Very loving and kind and easy-going.  But when she gets a Boo Boo, she turns into a different sort of person. Drama abounds.  She was unfortunate enough to have an infection when she was 4 that resulted in a high fever, time in bed and a very, very painful sore that had to be lanced.  So anytime she gets a Boo Boo now she thinks of that pain and has a complete freak-out, melt-down of epic proportions.  Count on it.

A few days ago she broke a vase.  And being a good 6-year-old who should clean up a mess she made, she picked it up.  Well, you know what happened.  This was a lesson in “come and get Mommy next time” because sometimes a grown-up needs to clean up our messes so we don’t get hurt.  I heard the scream “I’mmmmmmmm Bleeeedddding” at the top of her lungs as she turned to her little sister, Bria for help.  And the way she screamed and wailed I thought she had cut her thumb off.

Turns out it was a small cut but I had to practically sit on her to get a good look at it.  She held her thumb with her other hand and wouldn’t let me look at it.  She screamed, “Don’t touch it!  I tried to convince her I would be gentle and talk sweet and comfort her and assure her it was going to be ok.  Nothing worked.  My patience wore thin and I played the mommy card.  Washed it, cleaned it, put meds and a band-aid on it.  Good grief, did I just run a marathon?  I need a nap.

You know, there’s a reason that God the Father calls us His children……because we act like children, don’t we?  Especially when it comes to our hurts.  When we get hurt we have a tendency to act just like Haven.  We scream and holler and cause a bunch of drama.  Or we hide it and protect it so it can’t be washed clean by the Great Healer.  We would rather keep it as it is rather than face the needed scrubbing, balm and bandage needed to be healed.  We’re more afraid of the temporary pain that will be caused by exposing the hurt than of the promise of lasting healing.  And hurts will never heal until they have been exposed to the light to be washed clean.

What hurts are you hiding today?  Here’s some advice for you and Haven to consider when it comes to the Boo Boos of life, especially the hard ones that cut our heart and soul:

1. When there’s a mess, go get a parent (God the Father) and don’t try to fix it on your own.
2. When you get hurt, run straight to a parent (God the Father) because your little sister Bria (other folks) don’t always know what to do about it.
3. Trust your parent (God the Father) to know what to do and don’t fight when they try to help.  LISTEN and OBEY!
4. Let your parent (God the Father……are you seeing a pattern?) do the cleaning, the scrubbing and the doctoring to make you well.  You will only make it worse.
5. And for goodness sakes, don’t keep ripping the bandage off to look at it or pick at it when it starts to heal up.

May you find healing today friends.  Turn to the Healer and trust His medicine.

Psalm 147:3 – “He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds”.