Week 38: VULNERABILITY

I was at a conference last weekend on dreams.  The speaker was giving the various symbolism for elements inside of dreams.  Interestingly, nakedness in a dream often represents vulnerability.  And the level of comfort the dreamer has with the nakedness in the dream is the level of the dreamer’s humility.

I was thinking about that.  And my own innate sense of needing to look ‘put together.’  Why do I do that?  I don’t think I’m alone.  As human beings, we seem to hide our weakness, our ‘not good enough,’ our failed attempts, our longings.  Is it fear?  If so, of what?  Opinion of other humans.  Ouch.

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

If I’m not mindful of this, I will go around only showing my successes, my ‘good side,’, and in turn, I deny the ones I love most from the greatest life lessons.  My failures.  My disappointments.  Facing up to my own shortcomings. 

I’ve had a hard week.  Parenting is certainly not for the faint of heart!  I find myself short with my kids, blowing things out of proportion, and more irritable in general.  So yesterday, in the car on the way to bring the girls to dancing, I humbly admitted to my littles that I’m sorry for being gruff with them.  I explained my intentions and what I needed from them.  Through tear-streamed face, my youngest forgave me.  I realize that blowing it in front of them, then coming back and admitting it, is nothing to be ashamed of.  It can be healing AND lay a grid for their understanding that messing up and getting back up is a regular part of life. :)

Is there some area of life you need to ‘delight in weakness’?

**John Thomas, Streams Ministries International, speaks and writes on dreams.  Check out his recent blog: https://www.streamsministries.com/remembering-your-dreams/