Am I Ok With Weakness?

2 posted on July 2, 2009

POSTED IN: Authenticity, Blog Posts

The other day my daughter Chloe hurt her leg. She must have pulled a muscle or threw her hip out because she had trouble even straightening her leg out. It doesn’t help that she already has an incredibly low pain tolerance to begin with (it’s a major surgery just trying to remove a sliver).

We had to run out and needed to bring her along. Because of her “injury” and her tendency towards drama, she was limping horribly through the store and looking downright dreadful. I was getting embarrassed and, being the compassionate father that I am, told her to “either stand up straight or go back to the van.” Yeah I know, pretty nice guy, huh?

Fortunately her “injury” is doing much better now but it got me thinking, why was I so embarrassed to have Chloe limping through the store with me? Why did that bother me so much?

As terrible as this sounds, the best answer I could come up with is that I have a difficult time tolerating weakness. Even if I or someone in my family is hurting I would rather suck it up and act like everything’s cool than let other people know there’s a problem.

As I write that out I realize how sick that sounds. It’s even more upsetting to me because it was the spiritual fakers that Jesus called on the carpet (Mt 23:27) while He loved spending time with the hurting and broken (Mt 9:12-13).

I’m praying that God destroys this root of pride in my life. I want to have the heart of Jesus and show compassionate to those who are hurting (even if the person hurting is my daughter who is milking a pulled muscle). More importantly, I want to be able to be honest with God and others when I’m hurting.

What about you? Do you have a hard time tolerating weakness in your life? In others?

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This entry was posted on Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 at 10:46 am and is filed under Authenticity, Blog Posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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July 2, 2009

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1 April said:

Yes. In specific areas that I believe I’m “supposed to” be strong in. Like living in other cultures, for example. Since I’ve been places, and I studied missions, I am not the one who should have trouble settling in. And when I do have trouble, I get more upset at the fact I’m having trouble than at the trouble itself.
But, I know it’s been in different areas at different parts of my life. As a kid, I would be so frustrated if my sister could do something better than me. I was the oldest. I was supposed to be better at it

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July 2, 2009

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2 Karen said:

Wow. I can really relate to this. I have the same tendancy to be embarrassed by the weaknesses of those around me (including me). I’ll admit it’s mostly with my mother, who is getting older and it’s getting harder and harder to take her places.

Stupid pride. Get it out.

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July 2, 2009

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3 Patty said:

I’m totally known for my “I’m okay” attitude with my husband. If I get hurt, or am in pain, I grin and well – try to be tough. And yeah, I admit it irritates me when someone else is being a wimp, but I can be compassionate too. My motherly tendencies come out and I want to “help”.

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July 3, 2009

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4 mike said:

very nice post…keep up the awesome work, your blog has very powerful message!

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July 13, 2009

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5 tracey said:

I am guilty of this on so many levels. I am the “suck it up, shake it off” mom. Even when I had cancer, it was so important to me to give the impression I was fine. It’s a hard lesson to learn.

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