Bandaid Please

Ouch, that hurt...

 Can someone get me a bandaid please?

When my boys were little, I started to buy super hero bandaids and keep them on hand just in case. Why you may ask? Well, because when you are training super hero's you are going to need some bandaids. I'd stroll down the isle of Walmart looking at the latest editions of bandages, and ointments. I was looking for just the right ones to be ready to treat wounds acquired from their adventures. It goes hand in hand...wounds and adventures. It kind of became something that I looked forward too...collecting the cutest bandaids. I started a drawer where I kept them...just in case someone got hurt. There was even one step bandaids, the ones that have painkiller or Neosporin already in them. The most recent favorite to my collection is my Angry Birds box of bandaids. Lately though the wounds that my boys might get while on one their adventures could require an E.R visit. It would be  inappropriate to try to put a Buzz Lightyear bandaid on one of those kind of injuries. 

Pain was never meant to be ignored...

Pain tells us when something is wrong. Pain is meant to be dealt with. It is a response to a hurt that is not suppose to continue. That is why when I am flat ironing my hair and I grab the hotplate I mutter, "OUCH THAT HURT!!" There is wisdom in not touching it again. It would be foolish to say okay, well lets see...just keep holding that hot straightener but put a bandaid on your fingers to cover up the pain. It just would not work.  Pain will persist until the issue is dealt with. Lets apply that to matters of your heart, and issues that cry out for attention. The doctor says your depressed and to deal with the pain of depression they give you a bottle of bandaids to treat your internalized grief and anger. One, two, three, your all better? Maybe someone left you, and so with each kiss of your boyfriend you hope that it will treat the rejection you feel in your life. Maybe the bandaid of sex will cover up the deep desire to fill wanted. Maybe you are that young woman that feels like your carrying a big empty tank in your chest, and life keeps bumping up against you reminding you that your empty. You gulp down the alcohol hoping to fill up the void but no matter how much you drink...it is still there...a void.  Maybe your marriage seems broken because your husband just isn't the man you hoped he would be. You find your eyes wandering comparing him to other men. The bandaid of adultery seems like a good idea. You are mad at yourself for failing and it seems like you will never get better, so the bandaid of bulimia offers to relieve the pressure. Everyone says joy is the best medicine right? So you laugh when you want to cry. No one will know, that your thinking you don't know how much more of this that you can take. It is not the pain that needs be treated...it is the wound. A simple cover up will not deal with a gashed heart.  We live our life and sometimes we get hurt. A heart wound is a bit different then a scrape on the knee. A miss kitty bandaid is not going to heal your sense of loss, abuse, bitterness,  broken heart, or pursuit of perfectionism. There are bandaids that we try to nurse our wounds with in hopes to get rid of the pain. In ministering to young people for more then ten years, I have seen many bandaids. Alcohol abuse, drugs, sexual addiction, eating disorders, are just a few ways we can attempt to check out of pain. For a moment it may help take the edge off the pain. It is easy to feel that even if it is just a brief relief, at least it is relief. 

      The thing about bandaids is that they eventually fall off...

Proverbs 34:18 " The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit." 

God is compassionate, our protecter, our healer and He is the only presence that will bring ultimate healing.   In this life is inevitable that while we are on our adventure that we are going to run across scrapes and bruises, and sometimes gashes. It is so important that you guard your heart, and are careful where you take it for healing. There is a saying that states,  time heals all wounds...and I partially agree with this statement.  A broken leg requires to be set correctly or it will heal wrong, and time will reveal the deformity that comes from not setting it straight.  This I believe, is the same with our heart. If we try to fix our brokenness with things that are are not right, we will not heal. It may look better for awhile but time will actually reveal the deformity in what once looked like a healing. Today, as you are walking through , and you become aware of bumps, and bruises that happen while living life: I pray that you will carefully take even the littlest scrapes to God. It is through his touch and compassion that we find mending. If you feel exhausted from trying every remedy known to man, to heal a broken heart; I pray today that you will take a moment to ask God why you are hurting, and to seek his truth about your heart.

Let God take a look at those ouches...

Love, 
Laura Jean