Crying on the Inside
As I type these words, a new school year is beginning in our community. By the time you read these words that event may be ancient history to you, your family, and your community.
For some families, this becomes an almost “ho hum” experience. It is just another year with more or less the same students, buildings, activities, etc.
However, for some families, the beginning of a school year means that a child will be away from home for the first time as he or she begins the pursuit of a college degree. For others, the beginning of a school year is a time of transition from elementary school to middle school or from middle school to high school. These experiences are less “ho hum” than merely going from one grade to another. A lot of things are different. There is a certain amount of excitement and anticipation mixed with some apprehension and nervousness about the “unknown.”
For some very young boys and girls, the beginning of a school year means the very beginning of school of any kind. Up until this point in their lives, their “world” has pretty much been limited to their families and the activities in which their families have been involved.
Hopefully, one of the things in which the family has been involved is regular participation in Bible classes and worship services. While this experience has prepared the young people for instruction by and cooperation with people other than their own family members, it really cannot prepare a young boy or girl for that day when he or she is left by a parent at a “foreign place” full of “strange people.”
One of the young mothers where we worship was telling Donna about the experience her little girl had during her first day of school. The little girl admitted to her mother that she “cried just a little.” Along with all of the other “first day of school emotions,” she said that there were a couple of other reasons for that. First, she saw one boy mistreat another. That made her sad.
Second, one of her new classmates (as she put it) threw up. Along with affecting her emotionally, it also influenced her decision-making. When her mother asked her who she sat with at lunch, her reply was, “Not him!”
What I found most interesting about all of this was the part I’ve left out of this until now. The sweet little girl told her mother that nobody had said anything to her because she had cried just a little on the inside!
I wonder how many other little girls – and boys – cry on the inside. The reasons for those silent and invisible tears could be almost incalculable.
What challenges me is the knowledge that the practice of “shedding” silent and invisible tears is not limited to young people. I wonder how many people with whom I come into contact each day are doing exactly what this little girl did.
I’m certain that, when I interact with neighbors, some of them may be crying just a little on the inside. How many of the people I see when I shop, go to athletic events, etc. are crying just a little on the inside?
I wonder how many people with whom I worship “put on their Sunday face” and appear to be doing just fine, but who, in reality, are crying just a little on the inside. I imagine that it may be more than many people would suppose.
They may have any number of reasons for the practice of crying on the inside. Those who do it may not want to appear to be weak. They may not want to bother others. They may, by nature, just be private people. They may be any number of things and have any number of reasons for doing this.
Whatever the reason is, there is one thing that all of them have in common. They are hurting!
People who cry on the inside need the same thing that people who cry on the outside need. They need somebody to love them enough to notice. They need somebody love them enough to care. They need somebody to love them enough to help.
Will you be that person?
Will I?
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AUTHOR: Jim Faughn
