Don’t be afraid to stand out

Weekends are for doing things with the family and getting stuff done that doesn’t get done during the week, at least in my family this is the case. Normally my son has all sorts of plans for things to do:

• Go to the movies
• Go to the dirt bike trails at the local park
• Reserve the escape room
• Play video games all day
• Make a cake
• Make pumpkin bread
• Play a board game

The lists can go on and on. We try our hardest to do most things he suggests because we don’t get to spend a lot of time together during the week and yes, I admit he is the youngest and at times I feel bad for him because he gets thrown into the semi-adult/adult world with having two older sisters and his parents mainly who he is around.

This week it was going to the movies. He wanted to see the movie “Clifford, the big red dog”. While we were in the car I asked him why this movie and he just said “because I liked the book when I was a kid”. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the movie, but figured it would be fun to see and spend some time with my little man. So with the biggest bag of popcorn and the largest slushy we could get we could get we found our seats and settled in for the hour plus movie

I forget sometimes (ok a lot of times) what it means to be a kid. This was a fun movie and actually it had a good lesson about standing up for yourself even when you’re scared or the situation is hard. A lesson I needed to hear for sure, I just didn’t think it would come from a movie about a bright red dog. Tyler and I don’t spend as much time as I would like together because to be truthful I suck at computer games and he is really good at them so he plays them a lot. I tend to sit on the sidelines and listen in to the conversations he has with is friends and the laughter that is shared. The movie “forced” me to sit and enjoy. I laughed and shed a tear or two and I did it with my boy. So about that lesson though, life isn’t always easy. Standing out and being different usually makes people uncomfortable. We like things to be the same, for people to act the way we feel they should act.

I feel like I have had to face more things in this last year that I didn’t think I would have to face. Some of it I deal with and move on. It’s when there is something so out of the norm for me, it seems to stick with me and stays in the back of my mind, causing my already almost full cup to completely spill over when I stop to think about it. I have wonderful friends and family that try and help when I feel overwhelmed, but to be honest, the thing that hits me the most is change, that and the fear of the unknown. Then a lesson is taught to me from a cute little movie my son wanted me to see with him.

Just because something is different and out of the norm, it doesn’t mean that we should force it into conforming to what we want it to be. Being different is one of the wonderful things about being who we are. When someone doesn’t like it, it’s because they are afraid of what they don’t know. I admit I fall into this trap, even though when I was younger I made it a point to stand out. I stood for what I believed in, I fought for who I thought was the underdog, when someone told me I couldn’t do something I would do it. I like to think I haven’t changed much from back then but I know that now I do these things but in more subdued ways. The one with the loudest voice isn’t the one we should always listen to. God usually whispers when He is trying to get our attention, if anything He should be the only one we listen to.

Stand out and be different. Enjoy the ride of life, but be smart about it, and above all know there is a time for standing out, and a time to ride out what comes your way. Until next time:

...and these are but the outer fringe of His works; how faint the whisper we hear of Him!  Who then can understand the thunder of His power?   Job 26:14