Here She is... Mrs. Honesty

Do you have a passion? Hopefully, you are living in your passion. I think that is so important. My passion is speaking! I speak at women events, children events, and I speak for a national parenting organization! I love speaking! If I go too long between opportunities, I will hijack my family at the dinner table for a "quick" devotion that I just have to share! Now, as you can guess, speaking is a very seasonal situation. Most speakers I know have what I like to call a mommy job. Mommy jobs are jobs that let you stay at home with your kids, pursue your passion, and cover those little incidentals like food and the electric bill! I happen to have one of those mommy jobs. I work twice a week at my child's four day a week Mother's Day Out program. I really do love it. I can wear my fake jewelry, sing all 7 verses of The Wheels on the Bus (WITH HAND MOTIONS) and be dubbed the coolest by the coolest 4 year old children around! It is fun, but the end of the year is the best. Why you ask? Well at our particular school the parents host a big appreciation lunch. It is a time for great food, fun, prizes, presents, and the best of all... praise!
Everyone likes praise. Words are my passion. So, thanks for the lotion but give me some praise and my love tank will be full for months! Only this time... hmmmm I didn't know quite what to think!
I love those kids and I love the folks I work with so I was anticipating what would be said. I admit right off the bat that I didn't make it easy.Proverbs 16:31 says,"Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained by a righteous life." Apparently I have so much splendor, I cover it up once a month! So, that part of my identity was going to be hard for them to catch. Anyway, the big moment had arrived and our director stood before the vast group of women to pronounce the character trait that the Good Lord had laid on her heart for each of us throughout the year.
Now, our director loves the Lord and I say in all sincerity that I know she prayed over each character trait and verse. That is what made them so wonderful. She had some great ones, but with every trait and verse, one would wonder what theirs would be. One person had gentleness (see Ephesians 4:2), another had joy (1 Th 5:16), yet another had kindness (1 Cor. 13:4) and I am here to tell you everyone was a winner and you knew that she was right on the money! That was why I was so excited to hear my name called.
She said, "... and Debbie Bryan, you have the gift of (yes... yes... here it comes... try to look humble...) HONESTY! Uh... I smiled, but honestly speaking I wanted to yell out... LOOK AGAIN! Honesty is, at first glance, like being labeled nice personality at the beauty contest. At first glance it could almost be taken as, Oh yeah baby! I'll tell you what you NEED to hear! I do think of myself as an honest person, but there were so many other traits I would have desired to be chosen, but that is sort of the point isn't it? It was what she valued in me most this year.
She chose 1 Corinthians 13:6 as my verse which says,"Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth." In that little body of Christ at the M.D.O. this year that was what I had to give. She said, "Most teachers say one thing but really mean another. I don't have to worry about that with you Debbie. You say what you mean." I have been a director before and there is a lot of joy in knowing where you stand with someone. If you were at that luncheon, what would you hope someone would have said about you? I think it is not that I should have been surprised, but grateful. Grateful that someone saw something in me that as I was going along blessed them.
Job 10:8 "Your hands shaped me and made me."