This #ThinkBackThursday is brought to you by: Christmas Eve, Georgia, Family, and Fear.

Happy Merry Christmas Eve! 

Love you all!

So, my mom is in Kenya so I got to take over Gracie-Bath-Time duty, which brings me back to being a kid… I was terrified of the bath drain. I remember crying because of that wretched noise it would make as it was sucking the water down into total darkness. I was so scared that if I was anywhere near it I would get sucked down too. And so I would always hide between the toilet seat and the wall and cover my ears and try not to cry.

((Thank you Jesus for a creative imagination at a young age.

That wasn’t my only fear with baths and showers growing up; I also HATED washing my hair; not really the washing part but the part where I had to lean my head back and try to not mix the soapy water in my eyes. I was reminded of this fear tonight when I had to wash Gracie’s hair. She would squash her eyes tight shut and even when I was holding her head and telling her I had her and I needed her to lean back she had a very hard time with it.

Strange thing about all this is, its when we lean our heads back that we have the least likely chance to get soapy water in our eyes. We just can’t see that because we don’t have the perspective to see it. So what do we do? Sit in a bathtub with our neck tight and our eyes shut and head just barely far enough back to was out the bottom of our hair.

I DON’T have the perspective in my life to see everything that is around me, I don’t see that it would be so much easier to trust and let someone else who can see everything help me out. But there is the risk of getting that soapy water in your eye… doesn’t seem like that big of a deal until you realize they LIE on the kids shampoo when they say it’s no tears…

But still I sat there washing Gracie’s hair wondering where she ever got the fear that keeps her from letting go and leaning back… Something had to of happened in her life to make her realize that she could get hurt if she isn’t careful.

Even my 6 year old sister understands this so I have no doubt that you, reading this have figured out that life can hurt. But you still have to option to let other people in and to let you go of what you’re holding.

You see, if Gracie had just let me rinse her hair and she leaned back it would have lasted a lot less time than what we had to deal with…

I’m still learning this, I’ve gotten soapy water in my eye before and now because if it I’m a cautious person. G-d isn’t asking us to throw caution to the wind but He does want us to understand that we don’t always know how to get through things the “easy” way and sometimes if we’d just trust a good opinion we could make it faster.

I’m not sure if this will apply to everyone… but for today this is my art.

NOTE: I no longer have the irrational fear of getting sucked down the drain in the tub; give me a break I was 5 and homeschooled. I no longer have (much) issues with standing under running water to rinse out my hair… I haven’t gotten soap in my eye in a long time.  Shablam!