Life as a Sponge

            Today the Saturday Sisters met. I wish you could meet all these beautiful women who grace the breakfast table at either Marlene’s house or mine once a month. Today we circled Marlene’s table and enjoyed a delicious morning feast, and we also chewed on the idea of being women of gentle and quiet spirits (I Peter 3: 4). To do that, we talked about a sponge. Does that sound funny to you? If so, then think with me of life as a sponge. I’ve been doing that most of the week.

            Did you ever meet someone who seems emotionless? Hmm. The Saturday Sisters couldn’t think of anyone. I confess I poked a bit of fun at our Brothers. They seem to be more like that than we women.  (For any gentlemen reading Faithful Thoughts, I will let you know that it was only a tease. Men express their emotions in different ways, and we thank God for that, or the world would be, no doubt, reeling from emotion!) Emotionless people are like a dried-up sponge—never happy, never upset. Nothing affects them. They are rather sad or maybe wounded people.

            What about the opposite extreme? Ever run into someone who had too much emotion—bouncing off the walls with happiness or crying buckets of tears?  Could you tell a story or two, just like the Saturday Sisters? They’re the people who vent every sorrow in detail, borrow the sorrows and disasters of others, and incorporate them into their lives. Do you know the woman who can’t quit talking about the fatal car accident that was on the news that morning?  Have you run into her—the  woman who continually tells all her troubles to anyone who will listen? Do they remind you of a sponge that’s saturated with water and drips on everything?

            Could that have been any of the Saturday Sisters?  Uh-hmm. We admitted it. We had been on the listening end and the talking end. We didn’t mean to be drippy. We were emotional. Have you been there, too? It’s easy to be a sloppy sponge and not even know it.

            Dried up or drippy, either kind of sponge is not useful.  The best kind of sponge is one that has enough water to get a job done—not too dry, not too wet. That’s easy with a sponge; you just wring it out. It’s not so easy with our lives.

            Do you ever notice how much tragedy rolls into our lives every day? Television, radio, the internet, Facebook, coworkers, and newspapers are only some of the almost endless ways we learn of sad things. How can anyone have a quiet, imperturbable spirit in our day?

            Truth trumps circumstances. We Saturday Sisters renewed our minds my considering our first source of comfort—our father, God, who is Lord over all.  A trusted friend, who can help us think through problems and move forward, is another answer to drippy emotions. Monitoring our intake of sadness and tragedy can help as well.

            Is there anything else we can do when we’re a bundle of emotions, and we’ve done the first things? I’ve got some great ideas from the Sisters. Do you know what they do when they feel like they’re going crazy? The Sisters clean, bake in the middle of the night, compose a personal Psalm, find a quiet, private corner and cry it out, and do laundry.

            I love my Sister “Sponges,” and now you can see why I wouldn’t miss a breakfast with them! Perhaps they’ve even helped you be a more useful “sponge.”