"Wow, these chairs have sure acquired a lot of marks in the past 7 years." My mind went back to the day we bought these chairs and matching table... It was a chilly fall day. But excitement was high for a certain Bride-to-be!! I didn't seem to notice the long wait, or the many people at the auction. I had my Handsome Groom-to-be with me and we were enjoying our day!! I had dreams and plans for this table and chairs, they looked so nice and new, and I wanted to keep them that way!!
BANG!!! My attention was quickly brought back to the present. Another tractor had hit it's target-the center of a chair. Another ding was added to the many other dings now covering my chair. Another reminder that I have 3 boys. And another reminder that they no longer look so nice and new.
I love my chairs-and I am learning to love each and every ding and the stories that they tell. Oh, the conversations that they have heard, the feet that have used them as stools, the meals that have been eaten on them... the list goes on.
As my mind thought of all the different happenings around my kitchen table, I thought of something else. All those dings marking up my chairs are giving it character. Each chair has it's unique shape, each acquiring it's own looks.
We are much like those chairs. We were at one time a perfect, innocent child, no marks in our life. But as we grew, we chose our own paths, we made mistakes, we fell down and we got 'marks'. But it's all in how we choose to let those marks heal that determine how we look-beautiful or ugly. If I can allow God to use those character marks for His purpose, He will make something very lovely out of it. It's the things that happen in life that forms us, it's what makes us who we are and who we will become.
Oh, that I would have beautiful 'Character Marks"!!
Very well written... and yeah, we are waiting about 5 or so years before we bother buying a new table as it is just going to get worse, or filled with more memories :)
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