Permission

I need to give you permission

To be you…

Much different than me

Not right

Nor wrong

Just different

Not better

Or worse

Just different

Permission to be you

Without finding fault

Or trying to make you into a lesser me

Permission to get up at the crack of dawn

Or wake up slowly and fall asleep early

Even to drag yourself to bed at the end of a long hard day

Permission to speak up

Or stay silent

Trusting God for the right time to say what’s on your mind

Permission to think different than me

To come to the same conclusion via a different route

Or arrive at something entirely different

Permission to feel that which I seldom feel

To express your emotions

In ways…I still don’t understand

Permission to go out ahead

Or stay behind at a slower clip

Without passing judgment as to who is right or wrong

Permission to not fully understand you

Or to no know why you do the things you do

Or why you are the way you are

Permission to be the one

Whom God formed in your mother’s womb

Not just your body...but your personality too

Permission to have weaknesses and flaws

Knowing full well

God is working on your character as well as mine

Permission to have a past

That formed you and shaped you

Leaving imperfections that are all too visible this side of heaven

Susan Bunts Wachtel

November 3, 2008