I am SO ready for summer!
I am ready for my vacations to Hawaii and
Seattle and going to camp with the kids from work…
I am ready for bonfires and late nights…
My current playlist I’ve been listening to is
full of country songs…which has made me even more excited for the season…hence
the title of this post…inspired by one of my favorite summer country
songs…Skinny Dippin’ by Whitney Duncan…so cute…
But as cute as innocent/playful fun like
skinny dipping CAN be…(haha) I wont be writing about it in the literal sense tonight…sorry…
I’ve been thinking a lot about relationships
lately and just how scary they can be.
My parents and I were talking about
relationships for a short moment tonight and my mom had mentioned something
about long distance relationships and how hard it would be to get to know
someone like that…I thought about it for a moment and just responded with “How
do you ever really know anyone?”
Both of my parents then responded with
someone like “Yeah……It’s scary out there!”
At which point I walked away to go take a
shower…
And the conversation was over.
Relationships are really scary and hard sometimes. Especially if you are used to
guarding so much of yourself – obviously when you’re in a relationship with
someone – you need to learn to be open with them.
Last night was the last study of And The Bride Wore White with the high
school girls. It was bitter sweet...I had never gone through the study before,
but I am so thankful I was able to go through it with the girls because it
really is such a good study!
I prayed last night that God would provide
each of the girls with someone whom they feel comfortable enough with to mentor
them and keep them accountable. The other leaders and I desire so much for
these girls to have someone in their life who they are able to be open and
honest and genuine with.
What is a relationship if you are not able to
be genuine in it?
What is the point of having people in your
life, if they don’t really know who you are?
And if you don’t really know who they are?
Relationships are kind of like skinny dipping.
(I know…It doesn’t really make sense how I
could be encouraging a study like and the
bride wore white and an activity
like skinny dipping in the same
breath huh…? Haha…but try to stay with me…)
When you think about it…skinny dipping is
really an extremely vulnerable act. You are revealing parts of yourself to
people that you might even have a hard time looking at!
How many of us girls just stand there,
looking in the mirror at ourselves, picking out everything we don’t like about
ourselves or feel uncomfortable with?
How many of us girls are so unhappy with
ourselves that we don’t even LOOK in the mirror…….?
What is there about yourself that you
wouldn’t want other people knowing/seeing?
When we occasionally
present ourselves to others – we are able to be whoever we want! How scary
is it, knowing that we could go years
acting like someone that we really aren’t? or that we could think we “know”
someone so well and then all of a sudden
find out that we really don’t know them
at all?
So I guess I don’t know that relationships are very hard…but genuine relationships…those seem pretty
scary.
You know those times when you really want to
say something to someone but you are afraid of how they will react or what they
will think of you afterwards? How many of you feel that way every time you open
your mouth?
Isn’t it soooo comforting and refreshing to know that nothing we can ever say could/will ever
surprise God?
He sees us at our absolute best and worst.
And He loves us no more or less in either circumstance.
Is it the same with the people around us?
Do you have people in your life that you know
wouldn’t be there if you were really honest with them?
Or do you have people in your life that you
can say with complete confidence that they will always be there for you no
matter what because they do already know everything about you and still love
you and stick around for whatever is next?
But being genuine takes discernment. You never
want to share your deepest self with someone whom you don’t feel trustworthy.
My mentor once talked to me about crying. I
remember her telling me how special and genuine tears were. She told me that if
you’re genuine with yourself and those around you then when you allow
someone to see your tears, that’s part of you – because that’s how you really feel. She then said that if you
are not genuine and you just give your tears to everyone and cry about
everything – then it’s not that special – and it can even be annoying – because
if crying is a norm/routine for you, then no one really knows when/how to
believe if you’re genuine or not.
I think it’s the same with secrets and
sharing parts of ourselves with other people.
If we are sharing all of ourselves with just
anyone/everyone we meet – it’s not that special…
Just like if we were to go skinny dipping
with everyone we met…sooner or later people wouldn’t want to go skinny dipping
with us for the right reasons….and we wouldn’t be showing anyone how special
they are to us…because we are just throwing around the most vulnerable parts of
ourselves to everyone!
Is this all making sense? I hope so…
To me – when someone really cares about me –
they want to know me.
And they want to keep getting to know me –
the good and the bad.
It’s the same when I care about someone…I
want to know everything about them.
And I acknowledge that them being open and
genuine with me is really special…
Knowing such intimate things about someone should
really be sacred and cherished…
So don’t pour out the depths of your soul to
someone you wouldn’t go skinny dipping with…
