Sunday, April 14, 2013

Gently Humorous: I'm So Embarrassed

This post appears in Christian Home Magazine. Check it out!

     It's pretty embarrassing the things my kids have learned from me.

     I never thought I was overly conscious of my weight until I saw my four year old stand sideways in front of the mirror, pick up his shirt, and stare at his tummy for a full minute and a half.

What's up with this picture?
     I never realized how often I pick my toddler's nose until Thomas picked my nose one day. Even worse, Thomas then wiped some imaginary buggers off onto my shoulder.

     I think kids are bred to pick up on some of our most embarrassing traits. I also think children are born with an inherited embarrass-their-parents gene. This gene definitely acted up the day we passed the intimates aisle in Walmart and my two year old started shouting, "Breasts!" This is the same boy who was recently sitting on my friend's lap and asked her (with perfect diction), "Where are your nipples?"

     Sometimes my boys embarrass me without doing anything at all. In fact, the embarrassment comes from something I forgot to do to them. Like the time one of my babies had a leak at church and I realized I never put a diaper on him that morning. Or the time I took my son Silas to one of his therapy appointments and his therapist found a lolipop stuck in his hair. (He hadn't had a lolipop since his last therapy appointment three days earlier.) In my defense, Silas had a full head full of curly hair at the time, but still... three days?

     Thankfully, I've never been so embarrassed by something one of my boys has done that I want to disassociate from him completely. I'm sure the time may come when crazy hair-styles, wild behavior, or simply teenaged angst may visit our home and make me wish I didn't have to be known as my boys' mother. But hopefully those moments will be few and far between, and covered with an extra-large helping of grace and humor.
  
     Unfortunately, there have been times in my life when I've been embarrassed of my faith, so much so that I wished people didn't know I was a Christian. There was that time when a girl in my high school chewed me out in front of our entire math class for leaving a note in her locker telling her about Jesus. There was that time when my son really wanted to tell one of Silas' medical care providers about salvation, and I hemmed and hawed and turned beet red when he told her that going to church doesn't make somebody a Christian. There was that time when I tried out a new mom's group and listened to two ladies talk about the stupid and insensitive behavior of Christians without voicing a single counter argument.

     I've been known to be vocal about my faith at times. And I've been ashamed at how shy I've become at others. I hate to think my actions show that I'm actually embarrassed of my Savior.

     I just hope He never becomes embarrassed by me.

What about you? Do you have any funny embarrassing stories to share? Or maybe a serious account of how you are or aren't embarrassed to share your faith?

Random Fact #5: I'm about to turn 30 years old, and next weekend I'll be going to my first prom. (I'll be one of the chaperones, but I do have a hot date!)



    

5 comments:

  1. There was that time when I tried out a new mom's group and listened to two ladies talk about the stupid and insensitive behavior of Christians without voicing a single counter argument.

    I totally feel you on this! I've been in the same situation before! I'd like to think He'd never be embarrassed by us, though I'm sure I've given Him ample opportunities.

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    1. Well said, Emily. I'm glad I'm not the only one who struggles in this area!

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  2. Oh Alana this did make me chuckle - particularly the bit about you forgetting to put a diaper on one of your babies and Silas with a lollipop stuck in his hair... :-)

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    1. Yeah, years later our therapist still teases us about it! I wish I had a picture of how moppy his hair used to be.

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  3. LOL! Lollipop...

    I've had plenty of those "Jesus moust be blushing about now" moments. Not so much when I didn't want people to know I was a Christian, but when I was embarrassed by my behavior or when I didn't have the guts to point out the flaws in someone's close-but-no-cigar spiritual theories.

    My kids have generated a few less than comfortable moments, too. :-)

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