Wendy's Wonderings

Beth Moore is a very wise woman!

A very dear friend, "S", gave me the book "Breaking Free" by Beth Moore. Ya'll this book totally rocks. :-) I have been getting up early each morning to read it, as part of my daily Bible study.

The book talks about how we, even Christians, can become "captive" of certain things that keep us from having a relationship with God, and keep us from receiving blessings. There are 5 obstacles that can keep us in "captivity". These are: unbelief (including fear), pride, idolatry, prayerlessness and legalism.

Yesterday it was revealed to me that I am PRIDEFUL. And you will never guess where this was revealed to me. AT THE CITY POOL! Yep, that's right. The pool.

Today is the last day that the city pool will be open. Last night we had our last class for water aerobics at said pool. So, I told the nephew that if he finished his school work and chores without complaining, etc. we would go to the pool early so we can just swim before class. He was very excited, and did everything he was asked to do. So, we went to the pool 2 hours before class started just to have fun.

NOW, I have not been in "public", in shorts, in a long time. If you will recall it took a lot for me to do it for water aerobics. Well, I had to go prepared for class. I was scared ya'll. I could just picture everyone looking at me, and saying mean things. (Can we say emotional scarring from childhood?) Anyway, I thought "I'm not getting in the pool." Then, it hit me. "You idiot, you're going to sit OUTSIDE in the HOT SUN because you are afraid people will see you in shorts. If you get IN the pool half your body is IN the water." OK, this made sense. SO, I got in. And..... are you ready for this? I HAD FUN!! No one even looked at me, to my knowledge. The nephew had fun, and I was able to get him to float on his back, go underwater, and he even climbed to the top of the slide twice. He was too afraid to slide down into the pool, but he almost did it. I think if we had about another hour he would have done it.

He let me show him how to float on his stomach, while I held his arms and "walked him" through the "deep end". (5ft is deep to him, even though he is 5'2).

Anyway, about an hour or so later I was talking to some of the other people in the pool, David had made some friends and was playing ball, and we were just having a good time. I thought to myself, "Why haven't we done this sooner?" The answer hit me immediately and like a ton of bricks. "Because you were prideful, and fearful. You robbed yourself of this blessing all along. If you had only humbled yourself you could have been out here having fun, and EXERCISING, but you had too much pride to be seen in shorts in public."

WOW!! I wasted an entire summer when I could have been exercising, not to mention the nephew, and I am KICKING myself. It did allow me to try one more time to get the nephew down the slide. I now had an "object lesson" if you will. I told him that his fear of going down the slide was robbing him of fun, just like my fear and pride robbed US of a summer of fun. It almost worked. He did think about it. Seriously.

SO, I am considering giving him the afternoon off so we can enjoy the last day at the pool. I don't know yet. We'll have to see how the day goes. I think the little girl we babysit would enjoy it too. We'll have to see what the morning brings. BUT, I do know that next summer we will be out there at least 2-3 times a week. Oh yes ma'am, we will. :-)

Love,
Wendy Darling