A Splinter

A splinter. A tiny sliver of wood that slips in and pokes and prodes and hurts and frustrates. Garrett got a splinter this weekend while hanging out at my parent's pool. Now normally, G loves it at Meme and Pap's house. He is in his zone, but when he woke up and didn't immediately want to jump in the water, we knew that something was up. After a while, Pap and I discovered the issue was a small splinter in his foot. Garrett usually has a very high pain tolerance but he could not adapt to the constant, wearing, poking pain of his splinter. We made several attempts to remove the annoyance. We tried tweezers. We let him try to do it himself. We even held him down and still we could not get rid of it. Eventually, exhausted and out of ideas, I gave G a bear hug and told him that we would just have to pray about it and move on with living. The splinter remained but within minutes, Pap and G were chasing the neighbor's chickens out of the yard while Meme and I looked on laughing.

That splinter was a gentle and perfect reminder to me. You see, lately, I have been a bit off course. I originally noticed that my prayers sounded forced and rehearsed. My patience was thinner than usual and my joy was sorely lacking.  My attitude has been yucky. I have found myself too easily frustrated and only focusing on the negative. I've known that I was off course but I haven't been able to find my way back. Only days before Garrett got his splinter, I was reading in my Bible and a couple of verses struck a chord with me. Two of them are from Colossians. Colossians 3:2 says, "Think about the things of heaven and not the things of earth", and Colossians 3:17 says, "And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father".

What did all of this mean to me? Two things. First off, living a faithful life is a bit of a thinking game. If I lose focus and let my thoughts go off of the things of heaven, then I will lose my way. My thoughts will line up with my actions and my words and my heart and that is why I must choose to think of right things. If my mind is negative, what else can I expect but to feel downtrodden and frustrated?  The second reminder that Colossians provided me are found in the last seven words. Read them again friends, "...giving thanks through him to God the Father".  My attitude needs to be about gratitude. When I choose to be thankful, I am choosing to put my thoughts on the blessings that I have been given. My mind clears and my heart softens and, with prayer and patience, my actions follow suit. Then, and only then, what I do and say can represent my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. God's Word reminded me that if my mind is right and my attitude is one of thankfulness then I can walk in the ways that He has for me, not lost in myself and the things of this world. That is a game changer for sure!

Just like Garrett's splinter, something tiny and incidental can find its way deeper inside of me and try to destoy me. If I let it, it will poke and prode and dig away at what I want to be and what God's will is for me, but only if I let it. After reading those scriptures, I went on a hunt for my gratitude journal. Not surprisingly, I couldn't remember where I had left it last. I can certainly smile at the symbolism in that. I lost my way for a bit because my attitude needs to be about gratitude. I eventually gave up the search and grabbed an empty notebook. I started with number one and in the middle of that first page, a few days later, I wrote #35-G's splinter. A reminder, an annoyance, a blessing that I am grateful for.