On Shoes, Suffering, and Spiritual Maturity

I recently bought a pair of shoes.  Boots, actually.  These shoes are fantastic.  Every woman should own a pair of shoes that makes her feel as great as these shoes make me feel.  Except for one thing.  You women out there, you know what I am about to say.  These shoes are their own penance.  My feet hate these shoes (though perhaps not as much as they've hated others I've owned in the past).  After wearing them for a few hours, my feet scream for mercy.

And yet, I continue to wear these torture devices.  God have mercy on my feet.  I have told certain friends of mine that they are bad influences.  You all know who you are; there is no need to name names.

But here is where it gets interesting.  My pair of Boots That Secretly Hate Feet is teaching me a lesson about suffering and spiritual maturity.  Yes, you read that right.  Let me (try to) explain.  See, the first day I wore my new boots, and I came home with feet screaming for mercy, I took them off.  Then I had to run some other errands.  Plus, I just don't like running around without shoes; it's an issue caused by a houseful of kids.  I know it's caused by kids because before I became a parent, I had no problem with schlepping around the house barefoot.  But now, you just never know what you might step on.  Or in.  Wear shoes.  But anyway. . . I was still wearing tights, and they were handy, so I slipped on a pair of lower-heeled pumps.  On past days, I have considered even these shoes torturous.  But on this day, I wore them around for pretty much the rest of the day.  And they were. . . oddly comfortable.

So how does this tie in to suffering and spiritual maturity?  I guess you could say God used it to show me that challenging yourself a couple levels beyond your comfort zone, whether in suffering gracefully (which is what those shoes sure brought to mind!), or any other area you struggle with, can make what seemed difficult before appear. . . oddly comfortable.  Now if I can just remember to apply that lesson and purposefully challenge myself.  :)

Oh, and I also remembered, whilst chasing my three-year-old through the grocery store, another reason why I haven't worn heels much since I started having children:  They really slow me down!