Oh. You mean me.

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi.

Our current topic in Friends Club is 'self esteem'...but we have some adolescent drama that is smoldering in the background and, instead of doing the intended teaching on self esteem, I found myself telling the following story...which I thought I had posted here, but an extended search did not turn it up, so here goes...

Back in the day, I was the youth leader in a very small church.  We had our share of adolescent drama then, too, and I remembered one young lady who was very easily offended, often by folks she didn't even have actual contact with, because they happened to scowl in her direction, or some such thing.   I assume that by now she has outgrown that...but I am not in a position to know.

However, a year or two or three ago, I had a dream that I was back in that position, planning a major youth trip.  And this particular young lady showed up wanting to go.  However, she had with her a large package of Pull Ups, as (remember, I was dreaming) she was not yet potty trained.  At age 16 or 17.  She just couldn't be bothered.

I remember that I was absolutely flabbergasted...not just because she was not yet potty trained, but because she expected to go along with us and make all of us deal with the issue.  Of course, I told her that she could not possibly go along with us unless she made up her mind to deal with her, um, issues in a more, um, mature fashion.  

She was upset, but, because she wanted to go on the trip, she reluctantly agreed.

Then I woke up.

I was really surprised at it; I hadn't thought of this particular child in a long time, really, and I didn't know why I would dream about her in that fashion.

Then I remembered something from the class I had on dreams and their interpretation...that a dream about another person really isn't about the other person...it's about me.

Suddenly, the whole dream took on a new shape.

It wasn't the youngster who had maturity issues...it was me.  There were (are?) areas in my life that I am not dealing with in a mature fashion...and I cannot go where God wants to take me unless I pull myself together and deal with it.    Put on the big girl panties, as I have heard in many places and fits this scenario extraordinarily well.

Of course, that applied to the drama in the classroom, but I have to ask myself...does it still apply to me?  Am I STILL refusing to deal with issues that are keeping me from going forward?

HHmmm......