We went to eat straight from ballet practice (girls practice, not mine!). They could choose to be bothered by not being able to change or take their hair out of their ballet buns (or to be bothered by the fact that I helped with their hair, so it’s not as neat as when Jen does it!), but they rolled with it. It’s ok to look Ike you came from ballet when you…came from ballet. No need to change or hide it.
Esther 4:3-4 says, “And in every province, whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes. 4 So Esther's maids and her chamberlains came and told it her. Then was the queen exceedingly grieved; and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai, and to take away his sackcloth from him: but he received it not.”
No criticism of Esther; she meant well and was trying to help Mordecai and keep him out of trouble. But Mordecai knew he (and all the Jews) needed a real solution, not just to look like everything was ok.
There are times we’ve got to “put on a brave face” and maybe even plaster on a fake smile just to keep going, but I’m glad God offers real hope and real solutions to our real problems. After all, look how God came through for the Jews later in the book of Esther!
We can be real with God, and I hope you have some fellow Christians you can be real with too.