We all have that friend, that posts the millions of baby pictures on Instagram or FB! Or that couple who is constantly taking cute couple-ly pictures and sharing them with the world. Can you say unsubscribe?
For those of us, who perhaps are waiting on God to intervene in our life in dramatic ways, those people are our worst enemies.
They don’t mean to be, but that is the way it seems.
So are the people that ask you those awkward and slightly personal questions. For some reason, some people think it is okay to ask people personal questions, like about when a married couple is going to have kids, and if I am dating someone or “Don’t you WANT to get married?”. (Okay, maybe I might be talking about my Grandma!)
For those of us that are waiting on God to act in our lives in a big way, these questions are hard to swallow.
We avoid family functions or people in the grocery stores, just so we don’t have to answer those hard questions. We easily become cynical and bitter about those people in our lives.
People mean well, I know this. People are curious……people are nosy. People don’t always know what is going on in our lives. They are interested. Maybe because they care, maybe because they are gossips. Who knows, but they don’t always know what their questions do to us.
However, we cannot deny that it hurts. Sometimes like a punch in the gut. It could hurt like a slow tumor, spreading throughout our heart and soul, causing anger and weeping.
People don’t know that the woman looking at baby clothes Target is actually just looking for chocolate and comfort food, because she just started her cycle again and she isn’t pregnant, again. The baby clothes are tempting but as she looks at bows and little shoes, she is broken on the inside.
They don’t know that all the weight you have lost, wasn’t actually intentional but from a disease that is destroying your body, and you can’t help it.
They don’t know that the girl showing up to the wedding by herself, spent 20 minutes crying in her car before walking in, bravely facing the reminder that she is still single. She still came because she wants to be happy for her friends.
They don’t know the guy in the coffeeshop day after day isn’t writing the great American novel, but is continue to job search, even though he hasn’t found anything in 2 months. The questions about his job search, now are beginning to hurt and make him feel like a failure.
They don’t know that the million baby pictures they post on the Facebook and Instagram actually make you cry, and make you delete them as a friend. Those pictures are further reminder of what they have that you don’t.
People don’t know, so they ask. They ask those seemingly harmless questions, not knowing that you already have been asked about this 4 times already this week. The questions sting as dart of a reminder of this thing you try not to think about every hour, every day.
We are skilled at hiding these facts, these thoughts, these feelings. We try to remain strong, and not let ourselves jump on the bitterness train. We fight hard to be happy for those people.
We want to share in their joy, but sometimes it is just too painful.
But….doesn’t the enemy make that difficult. The enemy wants us to remain in pain, in isolation, trying to fight this on our own. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood…” (Eph. 6:12)
It isn’t our grandmas, and well meaning neighbors we are fighting against. It is the one, who is working to draw us into the darkness. He wants us to hide the pain, the torture, because we can easily blame others for our pain, we can harbor that bitterness and anger towards others because they don’t know our lives. We can easily do that.
We can hide away from the world and keep our pain close, letting it fester and grow.
But thankfully we have another option…..we can share it with others like ourselves. We can find those that have experienced this pain at one time and gotten past it. We can find those that are still in it and lock arms with each other, speaking words of life and light.
“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:17)
More than anything, we should be pushing each other toward the one who has our days written in his book. The Creator of life, the Provider, the Sustainer, the Redeemer and the Light. We need to be holding fast to this truth together.
“But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” (Isah 40:31)
Even in hard days, we have not lost hope that our worth and future do not lie with our ability to procreate, marry, or even find the perfect job or have the perfect family.
Our worth and hope abides with the one who gave us life in the first place.
When we have this in mind, those questions do not have the power to control us, destroy us or push into darkness. We can look those that ask in the eyes, and answer honestly and either chose to let them in or simply answer with truth and move on.
Anchor of my Soul 
Larissa,
Thank you so much for being so transparent and encouraging! I am always amazed how many of us struggle with these things silently. Being a voice for all those too afraid to speak up is a blessing. Thanks again!
Rayna
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Encouraging even in the midst of life's questions. God is there all the time. Letting thoughts of poor-me is not easy when there seems to be no change in our circumstances. Thank you for writing so authentically.
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Oh this is soooo good girl! 🙂
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