Simplifying… me

One of the many things “motherhood” has taught me is that you have to have a strong enough stomach to deal with all of the ‘goo’ that these little bodies produce.  Whether it be the leaky poopie diaper or the nose that perpetually runs like Niagara Falls, mom has to be prepared to deal with whichever end the goo is coming from.  After six years of motherhood, I’ve earned my ‘goo badge’, and I wear it proudly.  I’ve cleaned poop off walls, cribs, clothes and hair (my own).  I have an entire collection of shirts that have religiously been used as Kleenex, as well as cleaned, caught and been covered in vomit.  Oh yes, I’ve earned my badge. 

Goo is simply a part of parenthood.  I remember looking lovingly for hours at my sweet and precious firstborn.  I have hundreds and hundreds (no exaggeration) of pictures and films documenting every move she made and nearly every outfit that chubby body ever wore.  And as much as I was enraptured in the beauty of new motherhood, I too was inducted into a whole new realm of mommy-ness that is not often discussed – the ‘goo’.  Sydney, child number one, spit up on anything and everything (she had impeccable timing and every suit my husband owns has worn the “Spit Up Badge of Honor”).  The reason I have so many pictures of her in various outfit ensembles is mostly due to the fact that I had to change her clothes multiple times a day due to the spit up.  And that does not even cover the amount of poop her itty-bitty body could produce!  You realize, even before leaving the hospital with that sweet bundle of baby, that with every coo and gurgle there comes a lot of goo.

So, I can handle my kids’ goo:  I can wipe the green goobers from my son’s nose without flinching and clean vomit from my daughter’s hair with my bare hands.  I’ve got the goo covered.  However, I have to confess, I cannot…(let me say that again)…I CAN NOT stomach other children’s goo.  I have no tolerance for it.  If the child is not genetically connected to me, I really don’t want to have anything to do with his runny nose.  I learned this from working with preschool age children.  I was passing out craft items to a group of three-year-olds when one adorable little girl called me over.  She started to hand me something saying, “Teacher.”  I opened up my hand to receive the mysterious item in her fingers.  Before I realized what ‘it’ was, her ‘gift’ was already in my hand as she said, “Teacher, its my boogie.”  Lovely.  This scrumptious, frilly three-year-old girl just handed her booger to me, and now it is sitting in the palm of my hand.  Did I want to vomit?  Oh yes I did.  I quietly excused myself and went to the bathroom to disinfect my hand.

Just the other day, after both my husband and I had been volunteering at a sports camp that our church hosted, we were talking about some of the funny things the kids had done.  My husband, Joel, shared with me that a little preschool boy picked his nose and proceeded to wipe it on my husband’s arm.  The very arm I had been holding and caressing so lovingly on the drive home, mind you.  Promptly I made him go and wash his arm in one bathroom while I went to another and washed my hands.  Ugh.  I just can’t deal with foreign goo!

What’s my point in all of this?  Well, as humorous (or disgusting) as recounting all of the “gooey” stories is, I just have to ask one thing:  Do we not all carry some kind of ‘goo’ around with us?  I’m not talking about spit up and poopie diapers.  I’m talking about those things we hide because we know that other people simply can’t handle our ‘stuff’, and if we share it we may end up rejected.  I know for certain that nobody is perfect, just as I know there is no such thing as a baby without goo, precious as they are.  Thankfully God takes us – ‘goo’ and all.  He doesn’t shame us or run to the bathroom to wash His hands after touching us.  No.  God receives us just as we are.  When I’ve messed up and wondered if there is any hope of redemption for my soul, I know that in the presence of God the goo is wiped away and He is looking lovingly at me – the person – and not at all of the stuff I’ve brought with me.  God doesn’t care about where the goo came from or to whom it belongs.  He simply cleans it up and restores us back to cleanliness.  He doesn’t judge.  He doesn’t wish we would stop coming to Him a gooey mess.  He loves.  He adores.  He sees the most precious part of us, and He longs to continue to bring out the best in each of us.  How thankful I am that my ‘goo’ doesn’t make my Heavenly Father sick to the stomach. 

Do you have ‘goo’?  Are you afraid to expose the most “icky” part of yourself for fear of rejection?  Let me please put your fears at ease and let you know that we ALL have ‘goo’.  Every single human being on this planet has ‘goo’.  No one is exempt.  The key to goo removal is not found in buying a Costco size box of baby wipes.  The key is going to God, exposing the ‘goo’ and receiving His forgiveness and love.  If you’ve got ‘goo’, God’s got grace.  And He’s waiting patiently, with open arms, to embrace and accept us – goo and all.

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