Growing up in the blackberries...

A ten year old girl in a sundress, running through fields of hay. It’s a beautiful picture, one that you can see perfectly, with little imagination. Oh, to be carefree and full of the energy that the little one has. To be thinking of nothing past what you want to do when you get to the other side of that hay field. Blackberries. Yes, she will need to crawl under the rusty barbed-wire fence, and then free herself from the thorny bushes before she can get to the precious berries, but once there the trip is worth it. Her lovely afternoon snack will be worth it all, and maybe she’ll bring some back for Mama, oh how excited she will be.

Sometimes when I think on it, growing up seems like such a pain. So depressing and lacking in fun. You have more to worry about then what fun getting across the field is. You need to think about the fact that you could tear that sundress in those thorny bushes. You could get blackberry juice all down your front. Mama doesn’t know that you’re that far away from the house, what if she needs you for something? Your brother has the ATV out, what if he comes crashing through those bushes and tramples you? There are cows in that field, a few of which are not the kindest and would love nothing more than to chase and take you down.

We MAKE growing up depressing. In the first ‘story’ all you can think about it picturing this adorable picture of a little girl running to her heart’s desire, picking blackberries, having a lovely afternoon. Then the “grownup” thoughts came and that’s when it became depressing. 

Oh, to be like a child. Trusting in everyone; having not a care in the world about appearances.

The child in the story was me, as I’m sure many guessed. The same thing happened almost every day of the summer. As I get older I realize more and more how depressing I am. How often I only look at the things in my life not going just as I would like. The stress, the conflict, the drama. Now, the truth is, is that all those things are a part of my life, and I can’t simply look the other way and let them take their path of destruction, they do need my attention and prayers if I am to ever be sane. However, I don’t need to dwell on them. Instead, look to the opposite. Stress…joy. Conflict…harmony. Drama…peace. Find those things in even the tiniest things in your life, or even among the awful. Satan doesn’t want joy in our lives, if the things he is putting in our lives to make us fail in our daily walk are actually strengthening us, then those things are the last things he wants us to have. If we are praising Christ for the horrible things in our lives, we’re turning Satan against himself, and winning one for the Lord.

Sometimes all we need to do is become children once again. To trust only as a child can.

…“Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:2-4 ESV)