Kid Gloves

I don’t know about you dear reader but I prefer bare hands over kid gloves. To treat someone with kid gloves means to handle them gently and softly. While I do not condone forceful and rough, I am willing to investigate the in-between of these two modes of operating in relationships for the sake of honesty amongst us. I have to tell you that my all time favourite thing in the whole wide world is the truth. I like it served up with a generous portion of accountability, a heaping helping of responsibility and maybe a dash or two of humility mixed with the purity of good old fashioned facts. Sit across from me for any length of time and you will soon discover that the kid glove treatment has an adverse effect on my emotional state and it does not bode well in relationship. Before I sound too harsh, please know that I believe there is always room for gentility and grace in communication; there is no room for less than the whole truth. I will call em as I see em and my hope, dear reader, is that this gift of truth is reciprocated.

The truth can be stingy; a painful encounter with it can leave welts that cause scaring. It is risk taken to speak the truth without knowing what the impact may be on the listener. They might break, reject or push back against the truth presented to them. Conversely, they may thank-you for the gift of truth and respond in unexpected and extraordinary ways. What if withholding truth from another is the most cruel thing you could possibly do? What if by not speaking, you do irreparable damage? What if you are the only person in their world that knows the truth but you refrain from sharing and they are lost because you simply couldn’t get up the courage to take off the kid gloves and speak? What if you wear those gloves of yours because you are kidding yourself?

Human. The truth is undeniable. The truth in all its shapes and forms is liberty “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32 Stop kidding around with it. Stop minimizing its life affirming worth and value. Stop messing with a good thing. Live truth, speak it, fall in love with it so that you can be trusted with all it has to offer.

Take off the gloves and speak the truth to yourself.