I enjoy working with small children because of their unabashed attitude toward life and learning.  They are unapologetic for their joy in learning about the phenomena that surrounds them.  Their uninhibited view is contagious and invigorating.  What in your life are you unabashed about?  

In 1987 at the age of sixteen, I spent a month in the former Soviet Union as an Ambassador developing relationships between high schools.  I met with students in Moscow, Leningrad, and Tashkent.  I was excited to a level of overflowing energy and joy that was invigorating about what I was doing.  The daily interactions with people  through conversations and events revealed how much we all had in common. For so long, our countries had lived on edge with one another.  Walls were built based on what the media and political agendas had presented as facts. The truth of the matter was that we all were longing for connection.  Having worked with political representatives from both countries, it was evident that hope for change and vulnerability to trust was a common feeling.  It was an exhilarating experience that resulted in great forward thinking and movement.  I was unapologetic about what I believed.  I was eager to spend time with the students sharing our minds and feelings.  When invited to their homes to meet their parents and extended families, it was a humbling gift of friendship that expressed a nonverbal trust.  I was uninhibited about shining a light on the lies that had divided our two cultures so healing could explode between our countries.

The greatest gift anyone can give is to expose the darkness by shining the light of truth in the matter.  My endeavors in the USSR were just a small piece of the puzzle when it comes to shining bright.  Something I did not understand being young and naive, but have since come to understand in my reflections, is that everything I did was out of who God had designed me to be.   My ideals, motivations, and inner drive was something deeply rooted inside my heart that God had woven into me.  I was unabashed about this experience because it was in line with how he created me.  My enjoyment of teaching young children gives me the same inner sense of contentment.  Letting your light shine through your gifting and talents should flow effortlessly when doing what you are designed to do.  To live for Him unabashed because you are in alignment with His will and purpose for your life is the best place to be.

I can honestly say that I need improvement in this area. I suspect we all need to set aside pride and allow God to refine us so that He can shine as bright as possible through us.  There is no better place to be than in alignment with Christ! 

It is my prayer that each of us will choose to live “unabashedly” for Christ and that we are passionately  “child-like” about coming into alignment with what God has planned for us! 

Joyfully Healing From the Inside Out,