The other day I was talking to my daughter, Priscilla, and I was reminiscing about the most embarrassing moments of my life.  
I shared with her that, hands down, the most humiliating moment of my life happened when my children were all very young.  In fact, one of them was still in diapers.  Anyway, it was an extremely hot summer and my husband and I thought a swim at the local community pool might serve to cool us down and give the children a fun filled afternoon.  

Apparently, everyone in town thought the same thing because the place was packed.  

We found a small space to lay our towels, diaper bag and picnic supplies and took off to the pool.  After a long time in the water the children got hungry and we decided to get out of the water, dry off and have something to eat.  As we emerged from the pool, I noticed my necklace was missing.  

I sent my husband and kids on ahead of me so I could stay behind and see if I could find it.  I decided that a gold cross with tiny diamonds might be easier to find if I stood outside the pool and looked into the water.

And so it begins…

Standing at the outside edge, I circled the pool not once or twice, but, three times hoping to see the reflection of my necklace staring back at me.  I never did see the glare of my cross, but what I did see was a hundred people gawking at me with mouths dropped open.  

I became more uncomfortable with each pass around the outside of the pool.  Gosh, I thought to myself, hasn’t anyone ever seen a fat person in a bathing suit before?  And just when I was about to scream at everyone to take a picture, it lasts longer, an older lady came up to me and told me that the seam in the back of my bathing suit had come undone and my backside was completely exposed.  
Unbeknownst to me, I was mooning everyone. 

Run Away…

I can only imagine the sight before their eyes. A heavy set young woman walking endlessly around the pool while she gazed into the water with her exposed derriere facing them.  The humiliation was too much to register as I ran to our spot, grabbed a towel to drape over my indecent exposure and exclaiming to my husband and children, “We are leaving NOW!”

As we got in the car, I proclaimed that we are putting the house on the market and moving!  By morning, rational thinking prevailed, but I don’t think anyone would have blamed me if I did run away. 

Of course, my daughter was in tears as I shared the story with her and I have to admit I was laughing pretty hard myself.  
Actually, most of the embarrassing moments of your life will eventually be something to laugh about, but sometimes these moments can also be used to teach you a lesson.

How Embarrassing…

Like the story I wrote in August 2015 about my new Jeep and a car wash that went horribly wrong.  After all, it is hard to be too prideful in a spiffy new vehicle as you sit in the driver’s seat at an automated car wash with colorful soap and water raining down on you through an open sunroof.   My relationship with God is pretty special and every time He thinks my ego or pride has taken a hold of me, He instantly puts it in check.

Like the time I was in respiratory therapy school and me and my fellow classmates were just issued our lab jackets and stethoscopes to prepare us for interning at the area hospitals.  Lunchtime came and all of us were very excited to show off our new “important” outfits, so we wore the lab jackets, with stethoscopes and all, into a Shoney’s.  

I went to the bathroom before hitting the food bar and when I returned to the table all of my classmates were in hysterics. “What’s so funny?” I asked, but they all said they would tell me later.   Another trip to the salad bar brought them to tears again. As we were leaving, my friend finally pointed out the reason.

 
It was a six foot strand of toilet paper stuck on the bottom of my shoe that followed me all around the food bar.  But what made it all the more hilarious was how high I was holding my head up in pride over our new uniform and stethoscope.  Yep, there I was with toilet paper stuck on my shoe, which instantly put my over-inflated ego in check.

God loves me…

God does have a sense of humor, at least that is how our relationship works.  What can I say? He takes care of me and never lets me get too prideful. Just like the toilet paper, I guess you can say He is stuck on me.  Life is mysterious.