Galatians 6:2 – Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.
The first time someone asked her how she was doing and
(feeling awful) she responded, “I’m good,” I thought to myself, “Well, she just
doesn’t want to get into it.”
I’m sure she gets tired of talking about how awful she
feels. Rating her pain on a scale from one to ten. Pointing out her headache
locations and describing them as aching or throbbing or stabbing. Making
guesses as to whether her nausea will lead to vomiting.
She is not always feeling well, but she has yet to
say, in public, “I’m not okay.” Every single
time someone asks her how she is (unless it’s close family or a close friend), her response is, “Good” or “Fine.”
I’m a mom, so of course her untruthful responses have
made me wonder how I have modeled this for her. Have I communicated to her that
it’s not okay not to be okay?
She lives with me, so she knows the “real” me. She
knows when I am not good and fine. I have been out in the world with her
professing things with me are great even when they are not. And she has watched
me do it. She has seen me be sad or mad about something, put on my faux joyful face out in the world, and greet strangers with smiles and laughs. She has seen
me being inauthentic, even as I have tried to raise her to be authentic.
I recognize that what I do will always have more
impact on my children than what I say.
So it's time for me to say:
1) You are so brave and I love that about you. I also love it when you aren’t brave because it gives us a chance to come together as a family to support you. No one can be brave all the time. No one should.
It’s also time for me to model authenticity for them. I
vow to:
1) Always tell the truth when someone asks me how I am doing. This does not mean dealing personal details of my life to everyone who asks me, “How are you today?” But I can always admit to struggling and ask for prayer.
I don’t want my kids to ever feel like they have to be inauthentic for the sake of social comforts. And I want them to be the kind of humans who make room for others to share their authentically as well.