Lessons from a skinned knee

When I was little we lived in a house right on the edge of a huge (well maybe it wasn't that huge but when you are 4 everything is much bigger!) church parking lot.  One of our favorite things to do was ride our bikes for hours in that parking lot.

I loved riding on my pink powder puff trike and other bikes which came as I got older.  So many happy memories flood into my mind as I think of those days riding with my siblings in that parking lot.  But some of the memories that I now look at with affection started out horribly for that little girl I used to be.  Falls are pretty much guaranteed with riding bikes, or with running and playing outside.  And I was no exception.  I skinned my knees more than a couple times, or skinned my palms trying to break a fall.  Concrete and gravel hurts!   A few things come to me mind when I think of those accidents I had riding bikes or playing outside as a child.

1.  Falling is part of learning.  I am sure that as I learned how to ride I fell less often, I probably adjusted the way I was riding or watching out for others and avoided frequent falls as I got older.  I feel sorry for kids whose parents don't let them learn through falling (or try to protect them to an extreme point) - because I think these lessons are an important part of growing and learning.  Even these first lessons in pain are valuble later in life. 

2.  Sometimes it has to hurt more before it gets better.  I remember falling and having pieces of gravel stuck in my hand - as I ran screaming to Mama she held me and comforted me but then did something I couldn't understand at the time, she washed my scrapes and got the gravel out of my bleeding wound.  And as if that wasn't painful enough she put Bactene (sp?) on which STINGS on open wounds!  What kind of loving Mama would cause so much more pain to a little child who was already hurt!?  Maybe this lesson is the most important as I grow up.  If God is the loving Father I believe Him to be, could it be that He knows best and maybe the pain I am having is Him cleaning me and protecting me from dangerous things (such as infection in a scrape but so much more deadly things spiritually etc). 

3.  Compassion.  You have to go through some kind of pain to learn compassion.  Whenever I see a child with a skinned knee I am taken back to those days and I remember how horrible it felt to get hurt as a child.  Something that wouldn't be a big deal now was traumatic as a child.  I can show compassion as sympathy to others because of pain I have felt physically and emotionally.  After a painful break up (which later ended up to be my Husband!)  I had much more understanding and compassion for anyone in that situation.  My heart feels that horrible pain of being alone and abandoned and God uses that to touch others who are hurting in a similar way.  I have a lot to learn about true compassion, but I want to be willing to allow God to teach me and I see that one way is through suffering of my own.

How can God use the pain you might be facing today?  Be willing to learn and to have compassion for others.