I’m preparing this week to start one of my favorite student
projects of the year- “Turkey in Disguise.”
Each student will receive a picture of a turkey on cardstock, and then they
take it home to decorate it in some way that disguises the turkey. The whole idea is giving the turkey a
personality and planning his scheme to avoid becoming Thanksgiving dinner. When the turkeys come back to school we do a writing
project about them with “Who am I?” questions.
It is so fun to see all the creativity and the different ways students
dress their turkeys. However, no matter
what they do, the original cardstock turkey picture is still underneath. They can dress it up, change its color,
disguise the shape of the feathers, or cover over it, but behind all it… it is
still a turkey.
Some days I feel like I am a crazy woman in disguise. Some days I am REALLY struggling to balance
it all- how to be a good mom, a good wife, a good teacher, put some sort of
food on the dinner table, keep the house from becoming a federal disaster area,
maybe get to have a friendship or two at some point, exercise enough, and
strive to be the woman God wants me to be.
But I often don’t want anyone to see I’m struggling, so I walk around in
disguise… I cover it up with a dress and cute boots, I smile and tell you “I’m
great, how are you!?”, I find a way to still show up with the covered dish I
was stressing about, or wrestle my kid until he looks put-together. But the reality is, none of those things
still change what is underneath- a girl working her tail off to keep it all
together. And I would guess, that if we
were sitting knee to knee, toe to toe honest… I’m not the only chick in my
shoes.
I am so very grateful that Creator can still see the “ME” he
made under that disguise, and that before Him I do not have anything to hide. On one particularly hard day last week, I opened
my evening devotional to read about holding on when things are tough, but
letting go of the hurt that was making it tougher. I began to cry my eyes out. But at the same time, it brought so much
relief to know that it was OK to tell God I was not ok. That He knows every part of me, and He wants
me to share my heart with him… even the hurt and struggles I have been
disguising.
I think the thing I love so much about the “Turkey in
Disguise” project is that I know exactly what each student started with, a
basic turkey on a white piece of card stock.
And when the project comes back as something fun and elaborate, I know
the work they have put into it, because I know what is really beneath. In contrast, I find so much comfort in
knowing I can take off my disguise when I come before God, because he knows
what is really beneath. I can not hide it
from him, and I’m so glad I can trust His love enough that I don’t want to hide
it from him.
Now, if I could just find some of the things that were
hidden when I disguised my house as “clean”…
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