When Flip-Flops Meet Shame

It was time for this excited, flip-flop clad little girl to jump out of the old black station wagon, dash through the pouring rain and barrel through the front door of my grandparent's house.  Yes!  After an eight hour car ride, my summer vacation could officially begin!  

I was almost to the front door when my older sister elbowed me off the sidewalk. She'd already called 'first-through-the-door' and wasn't about to forfeit her first-dibs status.  That's when IT happened.  One foot remained solidly planted on the rough concrete sidewalk while my other foot was sucked and slurped deep into a seemingly bottomless pit of mud. 

Fortunately my grandmother heard my full-of-fear yell.  She turned around, grabbed my hand, and pulled me from the deep abyss.  First my goo covered calve appeared, then my ankle, and finally my foot was reluctantly released from the brown ooze.  

My bare foot.  A bare foot that once proudly wore a brand new, pink flip-flop.  That's right!  My brand new, pink flip-flop was sitting at the bottom of a pit of mud.  And like any four -year old little girl, who's just lost her favorite, new, pink flip-flop, I began to cry. 

That's when my grandmother became my hero.  She slowly knelt onto the concrete sidewalk, and did the unthinkable.  She bravely reached down, down, down, into the shoe-sucking goo and then slowly began the assent, holding onto my muddy mess of a flip-flop.  Oh, but she wasn't done being heroic.  No, she then took my ooze-covered flip-flop over to the hose and 
sprayed until my brand new, pink flip-flop once again emerged!

Shame can be like that muddy pit.  And I can be so like that flip-flop!  I have a boat-load of repented sin that our Dear Lord has miraculously forgiven and forgotten.  He washes me off; I once again look brand-new and pink and then I plunge right back into the mire of shame and regret.  Yes, God has already reached down and pulled me out of the mud, forgiven my repented sin, but sometimes I jump right back in to that pit of shame... And remember.

"Shame says because I am flawed I am unacceptable."

Shame wants me to remember:

Things I wish I had done differently when raising our children.

Words I wish I had never spoken to my husband.

Words left unsaid to my dad, who's now with our Abba Father.

Unkind thoughts I've had about people.

Most things I can easily let go of, but there are some things that are just harder...

"Grace says that though I am flawed I am cherished."

Notes to Mary {And perhaps to you too}:

Do NOT diminish the beautiful gift of grace by holding on to repented sin.  

As long as we feel shame and guilt over repented sin, we allow satan to indict us. 

Remember that holding on to shame and regret is self-centered and self-serving = sin.

Take those thoughts captive.

Replace them with life-giving thoughts and words.

Pray and ask our Abba Father for His grace-filled help.

Determine, with His help, to remain a mud-free, brand-new, pink flip-flop!  

Shame free; full of grace!

Do you ever jump back into the 

muddy pit of shame, guilt and regret?

How do you combat those memories?

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Leave a comment! 

Living in His grace,

  Mary  

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