A husband asked his wife one day, “How come you never seem to get upset and yell at me anymore when I do things you don’t like? “What is the secret?”
Without hesitation the wife replied, “I have learned that whenever I feel my blood pressure going up, I just go and clean the toilet and almost straight away I find myself relaxing and feeling much better.”
The husband thought for a while but couldn’t figure how cleaning a toilet would have that kind of an effect, so he asked her, “How does cleaning the toilet do that?”
“That’s easy,” she replied, “I use your tooth brush.” 😊
A perspective on life I have found helpful is in recognising that in one way or another we all have hurts…and hurt people have a tendency to hurt people. This doesn’t excuse bad behaviour but it can be helpful to consider that there might be something going on beneath it. Along with that, when we realise just about everyone is struggling with something, it encourages us to become a little gentler on each other.
Now before you read on I need to remind you that these articles are called “Just a Thought” for a reason. If we all end up thinking the same as each other, then potentially none of us end up ‘thinking’ much at all. So, here’s just a thought to consider.
Right back at the beginning Adam and Eve were given the opportunity to trust their Creator…or not. They chose ‘or not.’
It’s interesting that when the ‘or not’ ‘hit the fan’ the bible puts it like this:
“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid [fear] because I was naked [shame], so I hid [guilt].” [Italics and brackets mine]
So now, fear of possible rejection, shame for who they saw themselves as, and guilt for what they had done, had entered the world. And because we all originally come from Adam and Eve we are also exposed to this.
We seek to cover these deeply painful feelings with things like, anger, food, acquisitions, work, isolation and substances. However, like the fig leaves that Adam and Eve used in an attempt to cover themselves…’they eventually wilt’.
As God called to Adam and Eve in the garden, he now walks in the garden of our soul seeking to call us out from behind our guilt, shame and fear and clothe us with his truth and love, restoring us to our original image.
Life’s great quest is in rediscovering whose image we were created in and living in the dignity, freedom and potential that reclaiming this image makes available to us.
In the meantime, it might pay to keep an eye on your tooth brush. 😊