Bold Embarassment

This is my best friend who is not mentioned in this post

                I imagine the moment you realize that your teenager is embarrassed to call you his parent would be one of the most painful things to experience. My child is not nearly old enough to be embarrassed of me yet, but I do know what it is like to have someone be ashamed of you. When I was in high school, I was very shy. The act of making friends did not come easily to me and my social interactions often ended in uncomfortable silence. Knowing this, one of my friends invited me on a month long trip for seniors in high school put on by a local church. After weeks of pleading with me to attend, she finally convinced me to sign up. On the second day of the trip, she realized my quietness was not a very highly regarded personality trait among this group of teenagers and proceeded to ignore me for the rest of the trip. When we returned home, I felt very alone and insecure having spent an entire month with a group of people that barely spoke to me, but my friend behaved as if everything were just friendly as before we left for the adventure.

                Ephesians 5 is one of my favorite chapters and begins with the familiar reminder to “Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children. And walk in love as the Messiah also loved us and gave Himself for us…” (vs.1-2a). From this, the author transitions into verse 6 which says, “Let no one deceive you with empty arguments, for God’s wrath is coming on the disobedient ...” The author explains that we should guard ourselves against sin and “Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk—not as unwise people but as wise—making the most of the time, because the days are evil.” (Vs. 15-16). When looking at the full chapter, we realize that we are being asked to walk in love but this does not mean that we should hide the truth.

                I think often in modern Christ followers, we are afraid to offend other people with the truth of God’s word. It is rare that you will find a Christian who shows love to those around him and will still admit with boldness that, according to God’s word, most people will go to hell when they die. We act as if we are ashamed of this part of God as a teenager is ashamed of his parent or my friend in high school was ashamed of me. When no one else is looking, then we pray to God as if we were never ashamed of any part of him and we act as if it is not wrong. When we are following Christ, we should walk in love but speak with boldness not being ashamed of any part of God’s word.

                Are there things about God and the Bible that I am ashamed to speak with boldness? How can I overcome that shame and be confident in my beliefs? Am I bold with my speech but forgetting to love with my actions? How can I change my attitude in order to both walk in love and speak truth with boldness?

                Lord, I am sorry for any time I have acted ashamed of Who You are. Please help me to change my attitude and give me wisdom to speak the truth with boldness. Amen.