{"id":468,"date":"2017-06-06T00:33:48","date_gmt":"2017-06-06T00:33:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eatingforrealblog.wordpress.com\/?p=2"},"modified":"2017-06-06T00:33:48","modified_gmt":"2017-06-06T00:33:48","slug":"this-seat-is-saved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hopeinthemess.com\/?p=468","title":{"rendered":"This seat is saved"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div>I took my kids to the pool this weekend. I pulled into the parking lot and immediately noticed that it was insanely busy.&nbsp; I am apprehensive about going to the pool to begin with.&nbsp; First, anyone can guess that wearing a bathing suit in front of a hundred other individuals is going to make me nervous.&nbsp; Bathing suit season also draws on some trauma memories.<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div>I had gotten myself dressed, the kids ready, and packed everything we needed for a day of fun.&nbsp; We walked into the pool area and I noticed that there were really no available seats.&nbsp; My kids wanted to run straight toward the pool and did not really care that we did not have a seat.&nbsp; I had to beg them to wait for me to find a seat before they could get in.&nbsp; I found a seat that did not have anything around it so I made my way toward it and put our stuff down.&nbsp; I heard a voice from behind me say, &#8220;THIS SEAT IT TAKEN.&#8221;<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div>I turned around toward the voice and noticed it was from a woman in my &#8216;peer group.&#8221;&nbsp; I paused because I was wondering if she was really serious.&nbsp; I know that women hold strong to peer groups and it is very hard to fit in as a woman in a new city but we are really saving seats at the pool now? I started to pick up my towel to walk away but then I turned and looked at my daughter.&nbsp; I remembered the times she had come home from school telling me that girl X and Y would not play with her on the playground.&nbsp; I would wipe tears from her eyes and reassure her.&nbsp; I would tell her that God loved her and the friends that loved her regardless of the seats on the playground were the ones she really needed to play with.&nbsp; I am not sure why people hold so tightly to peer groups and refuse to let a new member in.&nbsp; I glance at pictures people post on social media that proudly post &#8220;cookie social- 10 years and going&#8221;.&nbsp; This post should really say- this is a cookie social and new members to the church are not welcome.<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div>I would challenge people to pick up the towel and welcome a new person to sit.&nbsp; Jesus wants us to welcome all.<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div>After turning to my daughter and being reminded of her tears, I looked back at my &#8220;peer&#8221; and said we would really like to sit down. The three of us can share the one seat.&nbsp; She looked at me and said it is good to see you.&nbsp; It was the typical welcome that someone gives you when they are pretending to be your friend.&nbsp; We exchanged small talk for a minute.&nbsp; Afterward I watched her and&nbsp;a few other women talk and laugh and enjoy the company of each other as I played with my children by myself.<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div>This seat is indeed saved.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I took my kids to the pool this weekend. I pulled into the parking lot and immediately noticed that it was insanely busy.&nbsp; I am apprehensive about going to the pool to begin with.&nbsp; First, anyone can guess that wearing a bathing suit in front of a hundred other individuals is going to make me [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hopeinthemess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hopeinthemess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hopeinthemess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hopeinthemess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hopeinthemess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hopeinthemess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hopeinthemess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hopeinthemess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hopeinthemess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}