How Relationships Aren’t Like Tiles in the Shower

I spent the whole afternoon the other day on my hands and knees scrubbing the tiles in the shower. It was covered in hard water and rust stains. So I pulled out the stiffest scouring pad I could find and started. Now, if any of you are familiar with tile cleaning, he may be embarrassing himself right now. I felt great about my progress because the tile was bright, white, and clean! Yes!! Until my husband walked in and said, “That’s not an abrasive pad, is it?”

I remained silent and held the notebook up to him. Yes it was. “You know why the tile is so clean, right?” he said. It was still silent. He told me that the tile was so clean and white because he had removed the glaze from the tile. I got below the surface of the tile with my scrubbing and removed the protective glaze right away and instead of the off white bone color the tile was supposed to be, I had white tile with no protective coating. Oops.

It’s a good thing that relationships aren’t like the tiles in the shower. If we never got below the surface in our relationships, we would never have a truly satisfying relationship with anyone. In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, in chapter 10, he is trying to get the Corinthians to look below the surface of things (v. 7) and see why he is so forceful in his letters. He has to be boastful and forceful in his letters because he is not physically there with the Corinthians to encourage them in person.

He addresses this in verses 10 and 11 which say, “For some say, ‘Your letters are heavy and blunt, but in person you are unimpressive and your speech is worth nothing.’ we are in our letters when we are absent, we will be in our actions when we are present”. Paul is basically saying to look below the surface of his actions while he is there and see the godly man beneath all the boasting and forcefulness of his letters.

There are probably a lot of people who read my articles and think that I am forceful in my opinions about how we should be as women. But I’m just trying to encourage others in the way God has called me to. 2 Corinthians 10:13 says, “We, however, will not boast beyond proper limits, but will limit our glory to the field that God has allotted us, a field that reaches even you.”

My field includes all the women I can reach out to try to encourage and inspire as God has called me to do. I will not push myself out of bounds, any more than Paul did, and I pray that you will look below the surface of my writing and be inspired and encouraged. I would love to hear from you! If I have encouraged you in any way, please let me know.