Bandaids:: Good or Bad?

GOOD BANDAIDS: You are younger...it's a pretty day outside-- and you decide to go outside and ride your bike. You are pedaling faster and faster-- feeling wind in your face-- you're smiling as the sunshine is shining so bright-- when all of a sudden-- WAM!!! Something happened and you crashed your bike. Ouch... fighting back the tears as you look down and see that your knee is bleeding, your elbow and hands are too... yep... that's gonna hurt. At the house mom/dad cleans out your wounds and puts bandaids on you. The bandaids helped  to protect the wounds and help protect against infection. 

BAD BANDAIDS: There was this little girl who was really sick. She was on lots of toxic meds and wound up loosing all her hair. She wore a hat once in a while but sometimes, she just went without one. She felt pretty good about herself- knew she was loved and well taken care of. She was healthy enough to visit her school one day- of course she had one of her hats on. Everyone was so sweet and caring to her- but there was one person that wasn't. This person made fun of the little girl and called her names that made the little girl sad. This person knocked off her hat and laughed at her because she had no hair. Although there was no physical open wounds here that needed an actual bandaid-- she applied one-- she took this incident and pushed it way down deep in her heart-- she kept "applying bandaids"- She buried it- she buried the pain instead of releasing it. 

Have you tried putting bandaids where they don't belong? Pushed your pain away-- tucked the feelings deep down-- lashed out at random people because of your pain-- yeah, I've tried all these at one point in my life. Have you? Did any of it work for you? Well--guess what? Not one of them worked for this gal... nope not one. Sure I've pushed things way deep down-- only works for a little while... the suppression was like a ticking time bomb~~until it EXPLODED!!  

There are good bandaids and bad ones too. The good kind... have a boo boo? Put a bandaid on it. Have a boo boo in your heart? Don't put a bandaid on it-- do something BETTER!! 

What's better? Call out to Jesus!!! He's right there with you and he's there to "stitch" up the wound-- not just "cover it up" with a bandaid. See, Jesus came to wipe your sins away-- to be your healer, your deliverer, you very present help in time of need. He holds you just as he is holding the little girl in this sweet picture. Did you know that He rejoices over you? 

The Lord your God is with you; 

       the mighty One will save you.
    He will rejoice over you.
       You will rest in his love;
       he will sing and be joyful about you."

~Zephaniah 3:17 ncv

Take care of you :)