When my son was just a few years old, we were outside and noticed a large, slimy slug working its way across the patio. Alex watched it with a sort of disgusted awe and made the comment, "ewwww...I don't 'wike' it." I quickly came back with the same standard my father often used on me when I faced a bowl of Brussel sprouts or some other childhood foe: "But it likes you!" I proceeded to gently tease the smiling toddler with "Aww, look! He wants you to pet him and kiss him!" Alex drew back and grimaced and said, "No way, Jose'!" a phrase he had heard his Papoose use in fun many times. I'm not sure why, but from that point on a slug was no longer called a slug, but was now a "Jose'."
In the same manner, my middle child Raychel wouldn't call a horse anything but a "hee-hee" no matter how we tried to get her to say Horse. We gave up trying and all of us were calling them "hee-hees" before long. Then, my youngest, Meghan saw flying pelicans in a movie and said, "Look! Pterodactyls!" It was really funny to us, and we still on occassion laughingly refer to pelicans as pterodactyls because of that. Looking back, we should've been impressed a small child came up with "pterodactyl" in the first place.
It seems to me that as adults, we do sort of the same thing, but with bigger consequences. We struggle with problems and fail to name them what they really are, even when a beloved friend or the Holy Spirit calls us out on it. How many times have we (have I) sat steaming over the same long-running relationship issue that has plagued us for years? And what do we do? We name it anything but what it really is, putting the blame anywhere besides on ourselves. Sometimes we confide our woes to friends or family, and even have them convinced that the problem is a "Jose," and not a slug....and they perpetuate the misnomer by failing to correct us.
Truthfully, the problem is most often within ourselves. When we pray for clarity and step back and examine the issue through the eyes of Christ, we can see that our own behavior is key to the resolution, and probably has been all along. Now, I know that sometimes people hurt us, and their wrong-doing comes through no fault of our own. Many times, however, if we could change our reaction to the hurt, change our input into the solution, practice true acceptance and forgiveness, the problem doesn't become a long-term issue, but an opportunity for growth and unity. Our perspective softens and we can find peace in knowing we have faced our own errors with resolve to keep a "Christ-like" image before others.
It generally makes us feel good to call a horse a "hee-hee" if it removes us from feeling accountable, however, at some point, we have to grow up and recognize that a horse by any other name is still a horse. And Pelicans do look sort of like Pterodactyls to the untrained eye. Immersing ourselves in God's Word and positive thought trains the hearts eye to see correctly with practice. Regular, honest self-examination is as important as food and water for life. Training to see the truth is a journey, with a King's ransom at the end.
I wish you all well, and pray you walk in God's favor always.
