No Trespassing

I've been thinking about writing a post regarding blogging and privacy, when lo and behold, I read someone else's post about the same topic.

Specifically, I was thinking about family life and struggles and how much could or should be shared in a blog. I don't write about my husband or children too often because I feel I would be robbing them of their privacy. This means that while there are some topics I would like to address, I don't, except in a general fashion.

Part of life and relationships involves trust. As bonds between people grow, more of the deep and important parts of us are shared. I have experienced the violation of trust in a few friendships and backed away from those women. If I trust you with my heart, I feel you should honor that trust.

So sometimes I would like to blog about the weightier challenges in my life, but because they involve the hearts of my family, I keep my writing non-specific or don't deal with the issues at all.

Some bloggers are able and willing to open up their hearts and lives and are comfortable with that level of intimacy. I genuinely applaud their bravery. But if you're reading Transitional-Woman and my struggle-posts seem unspecific or my life appears very tidy, know I am protecting my privacy and the privacy of my family. Their trust is important to me and I treasure it.


Image: artur84/freedigitalphotos.net

Dark Rooms

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Now that it's spring and the trees have all their leaves, my kitchen is dark most of the day. We have a large maple tree in the backyard and a small woods behind our house that block out the sunshine.

This morning I idly thought, "Most homes have dark rooms." Then I thought, "Most hearts have dark rooms too."

What are the dark rooms in your heart, the places you don't want anyone else to see? These could be sad, traumatic, hurtful, or painful experiences that still ache too much to share with anyone.

They could also be dark thoughts, those places of sin we desire to hide. Would anyone still love us if they could see into those dark rooms? Envy, greed, anger, pride, judgment, lust, just a few of the dark rooms of the heart.

As believers, we know light and darkness cannot exist in the same place. If we are filled with the Holy Spirit (and we are), how can we reconcile the existence of light and darkness in our hearts? We are not fooling God. He knows all about the dark places within, but yet we still try to hide those secret little rooms inside of us.

It seems our dark rooms constantly need to be discovered and broken open. The doors and windows must be opened to let in the light of God's love and forgiveness and let in the fresh, clean breeze of the Holy Spirit to blow away that which is wrong within us. God won't force the locks, we have to willingly open the doors ourselves so He can enter and clean out the dark rooms in our hearts.

Some of my dark rooms have rusty hinges because I have kept them locked tight for too long. It might be time to get some spiritual WD 40 to loosen the hinges so the Lord can go in and do His work letting light into my dark rooms.

I Don't Wanna

Generally, I am game to learn, or at least try, most things. But the other day I started thinking about things I don't want to learn. Some because they seem like too much work, others because I am afraid, still others because they appear pointless to me.

Here's a short list of things I don't want to, or plan to, learn.

• Drive a manual transmission

  

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• Hunt and gut a deer
• Make a good pie crust
• Go white water rafting
• Rebuild a car engine
• Calculus
• Eat neatly with chopsticks
• Play an instrument
• Chinese
• Enjoy reality TV
• Create a YouTube video
• Twitter.

That's me. What about you? Anything you don't want to learn?