Pierced Ears

Oh, how I wanted my ears pierced!
It seemed like every girl was allowed to get their ears pierced when they turned thirteen.
Not me!

I laid out all the arguments explaining why I should be allowed to have them pierced.
Nothing worked.
When my mother made up her mind…it stayed made up!

You can get them pierced when you are sixteen.
That was a lifetime away!
I obeyed…I had no choice.
I didn’t want to, though.

I was remembering all of this because I was looking for a button in my button jar.
I have always had a button jar.
The children loved to sort through the buttons when they were little.
They had to be big enough so that they wouldn’t put the buttons in their mouth.
They had to be young enough…to think that this was the most wonderful thing to do.

As I was looking for a particular button, tiny white buttons fell out of the jar.
I laughed because of my pierced ears obsession.
I didn’t want clip on earrings when I was thirteen.
They were ugly…and you could always tell they weren’t really pierced.

So I folded a tiny piece of tape and placed a small button on the tape and put it on my ear.
Instant pierced earrings!
How I ever thought that looked more real…I will never know!
Even that pathetic ploy did not work to nudge my mother into saying yes.

My mother died when I was fifteen…and pierced ears just didn’t seem that important.
I never really thought about it through the years and was content not wearing earrings.

Years later, at a Bible study I attended, a Christian author spoke to all of us.
Gayle had written many wonderful books, and had just published a book on emotions.
I bought one of her books and asked her to sign it.

I had the audacity to ask her a question.

I had been raised in a very traditional, liturgical church.
Except for a Bible I had in a religion class, I knew nothing about God’s Word.
I only knew the little bit that was preselected as a reading each week.

God opened my eyes, ears, mind, and heart to the truth of the Gospel.
He gave me the faith to believe.
I knew Jesus died on the cross.
I never knew He did it for me!

That truth changed my life!
I read God’s Word insatiably.
I learned about the Holy God I serve.
I learned about what He accomplished through the death and resurrection of His Son.
I learned how very much He loves me.

His inerrant Word showed me that He is a holy God…and I am a sinner.
Reading His Word…understanding the Gospel…I know that I am a sinner saved by grace.
I know that my salvation is secure…as I trust in Jesus Christ alone for my salvation.

Nothing I could do, on my own, is good enough for a Holy, perfect God.
That is why I need to trust in my sinless Savior who lived a perfect life.
Jesus took my sin to the cross…and died in my place.
He gave me His righteousness…which I do not deserve.

I was thirty-two years old when God saved me.
I had four children…one more daughter would be born four years later.
Immediately, I began teaching my children all I was learning.
We read the Bible together…had morning devotions before they went off to school.
Prayed together.

I was still attending my very traditional, liturgical church.
Something was just not right.
It no longer fit.

Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both will be preserved. (Matthew 9:17)

My question to Gayle was about spiritual growth.
What do I do when the old ways just don’t fit with the new ways?
The old way…religion.
The new way…relationship with Jesus.

Honey, look around this room. Seventy five percent of the women in this room are either in that situation or know someone in that situation. What’s your story?

I told her…everything.
How I came to faith…how I have been teaching my children at home…how no one seemed to understand what I was doing…how it was so hard.
Jesus said it would be.

Gayle spoke into my life.
If your children are being taught the Word of God at the church you are attending, then stay. If the Word of God is not preached…if Jesus is not the center of worship…then you must leave. You need to surround yourself, and your children, with the Word of God. They must know Jesus.

She said what I already knew.

I left when Bible study was over…and went to the mall…and got my ears pierced.
I would be leaving my former church officially that Sunday.
I had already left in my heart.

I was on a new spiritual journey.
Somehow, getting my ears pierced made the change that was going on inside me…visible.

The more time I spent reading God’s Word…the deeper I loved Him.
I desired to know His Word more fully.
One morning, I was reading the book of Exodus.
I stopped…amazed at what I read!

But if the servant declares, “I love my master, and my wife, and my children and do not want to go free,” then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life. (Exodus 21:5,6)

Without realizing it, my ear piercing was very timely.
The two things, leaving my former church and piercing my ears, were not planned.
However, they truly coincide.

God is my master…I am His servant.
I no longer want to be a slave to sin.
I belong to Him.

That was almost twenty-one years ago.
Every time I put earrings in my ears…I remember.