It’s Five Minute Friday! Or in my case, Five Minute Saturday because life. And also kids. This week’s word is “Include” and if I’m perfectly honest, I may have been putting this off just a bit.
Inclusion/Exclusion are a big deal for me. There’s a story to tell there, and I don’t know how much I’m ready for and how deep into it I’m going to get…
But I’ve been for a run, I’ve got “Stronger” by Britney Spears blasting on repeat in my ears, and I think I’m ready to do this.
*fastens big girl britches*
Include.
Exclude.
Those are loaded words for me.
Words that have carried so much meaning and heartbreak over the years. Words that also carry hope and empowerment.
I have been the seventh grader in class on Monday morning with all the kids around me talking about the birthday party they went to, realizing I was just abou the only one who wasn’t invited.
I have been the 18-year-old girl, the week before her freshman year of college, sitting on the floor of her dorm room listening to her Rush Counselors tell her that not a single sorority on campus had asked her back for the rush events that night.
I have been an adult, watching as friend groups have congealed around me, feeling like I should be a part of them and desperately wanting to, and feeling the weight and conviction of my own failures to fit in, to be include, that followed me into adulthood.
I have felt the sting and condemnation of exclusion.
But then…but now…God has changed my story.
This is Five Minute Friday so I don’t have time to get into the details, but since I became a mom, inclusion has allowed me to break free of the chains that exclusion had wrapped around my heart. I have seen how the healing power of audacious, extravagant INCLUSION can create a space for growth, for healing, can help us break free.
And so now here I am, preaching inclusion. In the Kingdom and in the world.
Because I believe that inclusion changes lives, it’s changed mine.
GAH! I wasn’t even ready for that…
There’s more there, some day…thanks for reading.
