“Put Your Big Girl Pants On” is a statement that strikes some people wrong. In many circles, it is a reference to getting off your rear, and doing what needs to be done. You know- suck it up and get on with it! Therefore, I can understand that many would find it offensive. Books have been written about it, and jokes have been made. Recently, I realized that there are many meanings behind this phrase, and in a friend’s time of need, I found it useful to say it like it is, with the utmost Authentic Truth.
She was at her bottom. One day, she revealed through her tears, “I’m in the bottom of my pit, and all I want, still, is my Jesus.” She was not saying it with victory in her voice, she was saying it with a defeat I had never heard, never wanted to hear from my closest and dearest friend.
In a moment, I knew- now is the time, she needs to hear something that will help, something that only comes from God. I drew a blank.
So instead, I shared, “Sweetie, you always use the ‘put your big girl pants on phrase’, but this is it. You have to really put them on, it is time you let everything go, everything! Give it to God in a way that you never thought possible. You must surrender everything.”
Surrendering everything is not exactly the picture we see when using the pants on remark. Typically, we imagine becoming a tough “chick,” shoulders back, maybe our nose even a bit pointed up. We roll back those sleeves, and maybe some even ‘spit’! It is like a green light that suddenly flashes and we throw down the gas and go! (Ok, maybe that only applies to me in my red mustang! <wink>
No. This put your pants on was about being strong enough to surrender. To know, that now, you have no get up and go in you. You have no more strength; even your tears are beginning to become tired. You’re not only at the bottom of your pit, you have made a nice cushy bed, and you have no intentions of moving, because you have no energy left, no more fight, no more words and barely a breath.
It is in these moments of life, which we all face by the way, that we lean on each other, that we all strive to say the right thing, the perfect response. Yes well, I had nothing- except the one thing I know well, let it go and LET GOD! (A tough vision for women to embrace, as control is a difficult thing to give up or ‘surrender’)
Next time your situation is more than you can bare, say it to yourself, “Put your big girl pants on’, and remember that as you put them on, Jesus is stripping away that which you can no longer take.
Authentic Truths 