Let it Be

One of my guy friends recently decided to read my blog when it popped up on his Facebook newsfeed. He's no stranger to the reason behind the blog, so when he read one of my 'most popular' posts on Coffee Dates he was slightly frustrated.

'I feel like you're giving allowance for girls to over-analyze and be crazy!'

As we hashed through our various opinions on the subject, I offered up the lame proposal of agreeing to disagree. Somewhere in me, though, I knew he had a point. While my post was an attempt to explain to guys why the coffee date gesture can be so confusing, I was also (perhaps) giving women an excuse to keep over-analyzing, second-guessing, and freaking out about all the possible meanings behind such a request.

It wasn't my intent.
And while I'd like to be able to write a blog that every female could read and suddenly be at ease, less crazy and less over-analytical... I suppose I know that's not reality. While I'd like to be able to offer up some tangible solution that suddenly makes us less irrational and worried about the possibilities of what could be...I still haven't found one. Not one that actually withstands any prolonged amount of time, anyway.

Because, in the end, it becomes necessary for us to repeat the truths over and over again...for us to fight to choose to act 'normal'...for us to not make decisions that are rash and emotional. No matter how good our surrender was of our 'crazy' antics and worries during that one really spiritual mountaintop experience, they still come back to haunt us. Or, at least that's how it's been with me...

I can write things, I can proclaim things, I can acknowledge how utterly ridiculous I am sometimes...and beg that the Lord would truly take away all of my 'crazy' as I long to trust Him in all things...but I know that maybe even a few seconds later, I may need to do it all over again.

It's a fight.
A repetitious fight.
And I think one of the first steps in engaging the battle is being aware of our inner 'crazy'. It's being aware of our tendencies to over-analyze, to read into things, to worry unnecessarily. If we are unable to recognize it, we're absolutely unable to try to surrender it.

I don't ever want to make allowances for the 'crazy' that seems to, all too often, mess with the minds and hearts of us females. I never want to say that it's right or okay or the way it should be... BUT, I think that we also need to acknowledge (and men, you need to be aware) that it's often a fight for us. The natural thing for many of us is to over-analyze, or worry, or act irrationally...but it doesn't mean that's who we want to be or even who we are. It just means that we have to learn how to hold our tongues, how to not let our internal freak-outs dictate our actions. It means we have to surrender again and again and again.

It can be exhausting.
So... my friend is right. While I stand by the fact that men should be more straight-forward with their romantic intentions (especially with coffee), us girls need to try to not get so flustered or caught up in all the different scenarios of what in the world coffee may or may not mean.

Sometimes we just need to let it be.
To let it be what it is.
And fight hard to surrender all the other possibilities that fly through our mind in the span of five seconds.

Men... we won't be perfect at it.
But hopefully each day that we are fighting, the Lord is refining us as He continually teaches us what it means to trust Him, what it means to surrender, what it means to not live life based on our fleeting emotions and over-analyzations of a situation.

Here's to letting it be.
Over and over and over again...

Submit Your Stories/Questions/Struggles Here

Your entries will remain anonymous