Look'n Like a Fool - Warrior Mom Wisdom - Week of August 15
LOOK’N LIKE A FOOL
Have you ever felt like a fool? I felt like a fool when I was trying to teach my son who is deaf how to say “cold” when he couldn’t hear me. I felt like a fool walking into the Atlanta Speech School with not a dime to my name, hoping my newly diagnosed son would somehow attend the $16,000 a year school and learn how to hear with his cochlear implant and one day speak.
But, let me back up. I felt like a fool relearning my alphabet and how to count at the age of 7 after surviving a brain injury while listening to the doctors say, “She’ll never be a normal child; she’ll always be a little slow.” I felt like a fool trying out for the cheerleading squad in a small one-light town where nobody knew me while being told, “You can’t try out, your mom and grandma weren’t cheerleaders in this town so you can’t be either.” I felt like a fool when my 9th grade English teacher, Ms. Lewis, sent me to a writing conference, never having written anything I deemed worthy of sharing before. I felt like a fool while trying to shoot an M16 for the first time at boot camp and an even bigger fool when I was trying to take it apart and clean it and put it back together. I felt like a fool the first time I attended a Bible study at a new church and an even bigger fool when I got snubbed by the clique there. I really felt like a fool the first time I spoke to a group of women and the event flopped bigger than an egg drop ever thought of flopp’n to the ground with a loud, echoing thud. I felt like an even bigger fool when none of my friends commented afterwards. When people don’t even lie to be nice – it’s pretty bad. I felt like a fool applying to a doctorate program as a wife and a mom with merely average entrance scores. I felt like a fool asking my boss for a raise. I felt like a fool writing my 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th book while all the other manuscripts sat on my hard drive with dusty printed out copies next to my slow-humming computer in a box.
Then, one day, God broke through all my foolish feelings and said, “Kristina, Jesus looked like a fool to some, until He rose!”
Immediately, I realized that just because people thought Jesus was a fool, based on what they physically saw and based on what they thought they knew of Jesus - that did not make them right. Abraham looked like a fool when he first set out. Jeremiah looked like a fool talking about Judah being burned down before it was actually burned down. Daniel looked like a fool praying three times a day and he especially looked like a fool when he got thrown into the lions’ den. His three buddies looked like fools when they were all bound up and thrown into the fire. David looked a like a fool hiding in caves for years before he actually became King. Paul looked like a fool in prison, beat, shipwrecked and hungry.
Just because they looked like fools to some people, did that make them fools? We know the answer is “No!” I survived the brain injury and spent a fraction of the time they expected me to spend in that hospital school relearning what I lost. Jacob said his first word, “cold,” before he ever received his cochlear implant and actually heard a sound. He also attended The Atlanta Speech School for four years and he was mainstreamed into the regular classroom at the age of 5. He is now in all accelerated classes and will have close to 1 year of college completed before he officially finishes high school!
And backing up, I did make the cheerleading squad and later became co-captain (with a girl whose mom and grandma were cheerleaders in that town), I shot the M16 and learned how to clean it and put it back together, quickly! I attended more Bible studies, not basing all of them on my first bad experience. Since then, God has written Bible studies through me which I teach and teach others to teach. I continue to speak at non-disastrous women’s events. God through me is finishing up the last semester of a very difficult but God-possible doctorate program. I got that raise and later left that job to follow God, making zero money while I wrote the 5th-18th book for God, and I continue to write.
And what about you? Do you look like a fool right now to some people? Well, that doesn’t mean they are right.
Jesus was crucified on the cross because they said He was lying about being the Son of God. We know He was telling the Truth, and He continues to speak Truth to us through His Word and the power of the Holy Spirit that lives in those who receive Him.
Jn 3:16“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Jn 3:17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Jn 3:18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
Jn 3:19This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
Jn 3:20Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
Jn 3:21But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”
The Lord is a Warrior!
Kristina Seymour loves to encourage and equip women through the Word and through community. She is the author of The Warrior Mom Handbook, The Warrior Mom Leadership Manual, and The Warrior Wife Handbook; they are available at Amazon.com. Kristina's Bible studies are for women who desire to live by faith in the midst of their everyday lives. She has learned that women can't survive on caffeine and animal crackers alone; women in the Word and in community are united and able to stand firm. To learn more about Kristina, please visit her recently founded Share & Company Publishing House http://seymourkristina.wix.
Kristina Seymour loves to encourage and equip women through the Word and through community. She is the author of The Warrior Mom Handbook, The Warrior Mom Leadership Manual, and The Warrior Wife Handbook; they are available at Amazon.com. Kristina's Bible studies are for women who desire to live by faith in the midst of their everyday lives. She has learned that women can't survive on caffeine and animal crackers alone; women in the Word and in community are united and able to stand firm. To learn more about Kristina, please visit her website, https://kristinaseymour.com/. God loves to share His story of love and grace through us all, and Kristina believes that everyone has a story to tell.
