20 May 2020

Put on those pink suede shoes, just make sure they fit you. During lockdown each of us in our own way had to learn to cope with everyday life. It was not normal anymore. The four grandchildren (and their parents) that I lived with for 8 weeks did not know what normal was at that time.

It started in early February. We were all moving to new houses. Selling up and moving to an unknown address. The children were still in school right up till the last week of the move. God is so good! In that week of the move, we all found out we had a family house to move into that would fit everyone in and it was free!

There was excitement and sadness all at the same time. Leaving friends, people you know, and what you know about your suburb, town, etc, and moving to the unknown. During the move the children missed a few weeks of schooling.

The first week was fantastic they said. We can sleep in and play whenever we want. Then as the weeks progressed, they got bored. What can we do?

One of the main problems was they were not in their own house, no toys or games because their things hadn’t arrived yet from interstate. The children were great at making up plays, playing hide and seek, drawing and all the umpteen things you can do without much.

I secretly bought some indoor activities online like play doh, puzzle books, nerf guns, and outdoor activities also. I especially was looking forward to the badminton set and bats and balls that were coming.

When the box arrived, my daughter Melissa and I hid it, and every day we would bring out a new item for their enjoyment, till the box was empty.

Internationally the news headlines were all about the Coronavirus in China. The world was watching, but the children were oblivious to it at first.

Finally, their Mum and Dad (my daughter and son-in-law) found a house for their family to buy and a school the children could attend. They started for one week at the new school before the news started to get closer to home about the virus and we were all put into lockdown.

All schools were then organizing home-schooling and the children (and parents) were occupied with that for 5 days a week. As the weeks turned into months the weather got cooler.

The family who had only brought summer clothes with them were feeling a bit chilly at night, so Mum and Dad took a quick stint down to the shops to get a tracksuit each for them.

Then I noticed that they were only wearing sandals or thongs. I don’t know about you, but if my feet are warm, I feel so much warmer all over. So once again, I looked online for some covered in shoes for the four girls. I asked their Mum what sizes they were and happily ordered on the internet. I was so pleased with my purchases especially for the 2 younger girls. There just happened to be a special on these pink suede boots! I fell in love with them and I knew the girls Willow and Aubrey would too.

They arrived a while later but just in time for the really cool weather. I was so excited when I gave them to the girls (my granddaughters). Five-year-old Aubrey’s were perfect and she told me she loved them. Two-year-old Willow, meanwhile, was struggling to put them on. No, I had not bought them too small, just the opposite, they were too big. Willow was struggling to keep them on. She had to walk around the floor not lifting her foot up but shuffling it along or her foot would come out of it. I was so disappointed. But, she on the other hand, was smiling from ear to ear and stated that she loved them too. “Thanks, Grammie.”

I then explained to her that I would have to return them to get a smaller size, but she would not have a bar of it. She kept walking awkwardly around the room saying, “It’s ok, see they fit.”

Hiding a smile because she looked so funny trying to keep the boots on, I heard the Holy Spirit speak to me. Do you know that sometimes in life we walk around in shoes that are not made for us, they are not our size but our pride or not wanting to hurt anyone, even ourselves, we do not acknowledge it and so fix the problem?

It made me think. Do I sometimes put on something, do something that is not me? I mean not for me because I don’t want to disappoint my parents, my friends, my boss, my work colleagues. Am I wearing the right shoes that fit me? That were designed just for me or do I shuffle around handicapped in life because I’m not wearing the right fit.

You see it a lot in teenagers. They want to fit in with their peers, so they dress the same, talk the same, act the same. As they mature, you see often different ones who break the meld and fit the shoes they are meant to walk in.

Now this is not a bad thing, especially as we are growing up and still maturing, but when we are older, we should walk our road. The road meant for us. Even if it is quite a different road to others, to our family wishes. I love this quote. “Do yourself a favour, never compare yourself to others because comparison swallows your God-given gift.”

Now this is different from “putting yourself in someone’s else’s shoes,” or having empathy for someone else’s situation or life circumstances. This is important to do as a Christian, so we don’t become judgmental of others and their life situations. Maybe they made the best choice at the time.

I remember as my five children were growing up and deciding what subjects they wanted to pick for upper High School, I came across many adults saying this to me, “Oh, so no one is following in your footsteps and taking on your career? Aren’t you disappointed?” I was a Pharmacist. Every time I replied, “They need to choose for themselves what they want to do, where their gifts and talents lie. What God has for them.” Now if anyone of them wanted to do what I had been doing, I would have been delighted, but I was just as delighted when they all chose different career paths.

Could you be in a career, in a life situation only because you did not want to disappoint your parents? Are you behaving a certain way just to keep the peace, which is not a bad thing, but maybe you should speak up and share your opinion? Are you trying to copy or compete with your brother or sister who is the family’s favorite? A clinical psychologist named Dr. Henry Cloud, a leading self-help author, states – “if we are always trying to keep everyone happy, then we cannot make the choices required to live correctly and freely. We will make decisions based on how others feel about our choices.”

In 2Timothy 1:7 it says, “For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self- control.”

So, I encourage you even now to make choices, yes caring for others, but also caring for yourself. Are you in the right fit of shoes, pink suede boots in fact, and doing what God would have YOU do?

May these jottings from my journal inspire you to believe in and fall in love with Christ- the hope of the world, as stated in Jeremiah 17:7, ‘Blessed is the man who believes and trusts in and relies on the Lord and whose hope and confident expectation is the Lord!’

Love

Rosemary

Every week groups of ladies meet together to chat about the things I raise in my weekly blog post and to chat about life in general. We call these ‘Heart Connect’ groups. If you would like more information please click HERE.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Are you using the gifts that God has given you? Or are you trying to do something/be someone that you have not been gifted to do or be?

Do you sometimes put on things that are not you?

Are you in the right place doing the things God would have you do? If not, what can you do to move to that place? Where do you think God wants you?