I was enjoying a great breakfast at Chick-fil-a when the morning turned into one of those I think I can learn something from this moments.

Two sets of parents had met for pleasant conversation. It was easy to see that they were friends. Each had a little girl about three or four years age. These precious bundles of energy were having a ball, trying out all they could find in the indoor playground.

• • They’d struggle across a tunnel of netting.
  • They’d scoot through a plastic tube.
  • They’d hurl themselves down a huge circular slide. (What fun.)

I thought, “Man, if I tried that it’d be ‘traction for me in the morning!’”

That’s when it happened. These little sweethearts turned away from all the good stuff and gave their attention to a HOLE in the red cushion over the box that held their shoes. The hole was no bigger than a quarter but they couldn’t leave it alone.

• • They’d study the hole.
  • They’d pick at the hole.
  • They’d look underneath to see if the hole went through the top of the box.

I thought, “Aren’t we a lot like that with each other?!” There’s a lot of “good stuff” in most of us but we have to focus on the flaws, the mistakes, the sins.

Thankfully, God is more interested in making us WHOLE than he is in the HOLE we’ve burned into our soul by the bad decisions of our past. Ask Paul.

But by the grace of God I am what I am 

—1 Corinthians 15:10

cf. 1 Timothy 1:12-17