That's a sorry excuse you have there, ma'am

A couple months ago, my friend Henry*, went through a really tough break up. He had been dating a girl named Diane* for a few weeks, and even though they weren’t together for that long, he took it hard. A couple weeks after the split, he was giving me a ride home, and I don’t know how, but the conversation turned to Diane and what a terrible person she was. I’ve noticed that, a lot of the time, when guys are about to actually share how they feel about something, they start it off by trying to be as macho as possible, so I just looked out the window and waited for him to say what he actually wanted to say. When he did, I about fainted. He was talking about a flower (for goodness sakes! A flower of all things!) that he had pinned to the visor in his car. It was the boutonniere from the last school dance that he went to with Diane. He couldn’t bring himself to part with a couple of wilted, ugly old plants wrapped in some nasty old ribbon. I told him “Henry, you do realize that that” pointing to the flower “is a boutonniere, don’t you? It’s not a person. It’s not your dog. It’s a thing, and you don’t need it. You’re not going to get back together with Diane right?” He agreed, but left it there. “Throw it out the window. Do it. Do it do it do it. Don’t treat things like people.”

I don’t know about you girls, but I’ve got a purple shoe box hidden away filled with a bunch of stuff I don’t need. Letters, CDs, a SWEET book that I made for him to take to college with him... And I know that some of you might have a similar box of stuff. Maybe it’s not from an old boyfriend. Maybe it’s stuff that reminds you of something you miss, like an old school or house or something. When I go through my box of stuff, I’ll admit, sometimes it reminds me of the great times, but mostly, it brings back all the regret and my heart just gets heavier. We aren't meant to carry our past around in a purple shoebox. We’re not meant to rifle through it every now and then and think of what might have been.

With so many sad songs about loneliness and regret and guilt, it’s easy to wallow in the past, but we need to fight against that mentality. Jesus is with us in all of those times when we want to shut out the world. He’s waiting patiently on the other side of the wall we build around ourselves every time we’re hurt. He wants us to change the radio station when that sad song comes on, and say “Ummm no, I don’t think I’ll feel like crap today. I think I’ll feel loved instead.” He wants us to realize that a box of stuff is not a legitimate substitute for an actual relationship. The devil will always try to warp your memory and try to make you feel worse about it, but it’s over. It’s done. All those terrible feelings of the past. Guess what? They’re still in the past. You’re right here, and they can’t touch you. You belong to Jesus Christ, and He says, “No satan. You can’t have this one. This one’s mine.” 

You’re all great!! Send one up for the people suffering in the aftermath of those crazy tornadoes in the midwest! Sleep well! Keep it real, Emily

*Names have been changed to protect my friend's pride.