Struggling with loads of laundry, clutter in the kitchen and chaos in your life? Stress can easily steal our joy. Trish Berg reminds us to simplify the small stuff and find Joy in the Journey.
When my children were born, I was left with an indelible impression of Gods love. Each time I was blessed to give birth to a baby, it felt as if God had taken a piece of my heart and gave it legs. Though I have never adopted a child, I have dear friends who have, and they have shared with me that they felt the same way about their children. So I know it is not as much about the giving birth as much as it is about the giving love to another human being that you are completely responsible for this side of heaven.
I will never forget those first impressions of my little ones. Their tiny little cries, their little fingers wrapped around mine, there big eyes looking up at me as if I had all of the answers to lifes questions when in reality I had more questions than answers. When each of my children were born, the nurse gave me an unofficial birth certificate complete with their footprints in ink.
I didnt need their footprints for they had already walked across my heart and soul and left a mark no ink could ever match. But I kept those documents in their baby books nonetheless as a reminder of how small they started out in this world.
Those first impressions have made such an imprint on my heart and if I close my eyes and remember back, I can almost smell that wonderful newborn smell I loved when I pressed my nose into their soft, fuzzy newborn hair.
First impressions are so important, and sometimes we forget that. We are so quick to judge others by what we see in the first thirty seconds of an encounter that we forget that we are holding others to a standard we could never live up to.
I have spent the last two weeks making first impressions on a group of about twenty people at Anderson University as I embark on a new journey in my life – being a college student again. And I am sorry to say that I am guilty of making those rash judgments on many of them. What they look like, how they speak, what they say. I have judged them all on their first impression and feel really bad about that.
But God is good, and He gives us second chances.
As I have gotten to know each and every person here, I have learned their stories, their family histories and their dreams. We have shared our hearts with each other and I have seen more love and encouragement here than I ever could have expected. Each person here surprised me with a deeper impression than I started with in the first thirty seconds of our initial meeting, and my admiration continues to grow for them individually and as a group.
I may never forget my first impressions here at Anderson, like tiny little ink footprints on a card file in my head. But I know that I have more questions than answers in this life, and so I walk humbly where God leads.
Each new person I meet, whether at college, in the Wal-Mart checkout line or sitting next to me in an airplane, makes a footprint across my heart and soul and leaves a mark no ink could ever match. We all start out so small in this world and end up making more first impressions than we could ever realize.
How do people judge me? I may never be sure. My only hope is that my first impressions do not overshadow my lasting impressions of love and grace in the lives of those I encounter.
In permanent ink.
Catch up with Trish at www.TrishBerg.com
