SUPERALO! (get over it!)

Learning a new language kills any pride you may have left. But if you really want it bad enough, you will be willing to make many mistakes, then, learn from those mistakes in order to become better. This is true in anything we do in life. Mistakes cause us to reflect and to learn.
I beg the people to correct my horrible spanish but very few do. They are so thrilled that I am trying, (and sometimes laugh, or hold back from laughing at me) that they don't want to correct me.  I've convinced only a few to "AYUDAME!" Help me! Then I explain to them that it is for their good as well, because how else will I learn to preach well enough without an interpretor.
Sometimes, throughout the day, after I have had a good conversation with the maid concerning anything in general, I have to hold back the tears and say to myself, "thank you Jesus," for giving me more and more pieces to this language every day. Sometimes during Paul's spanish class, he sits across the table from me, and at times I look at him and he is teary eyed. When I asked him why, he says it is because he is amazed at how I understand all the teacher is saying when she is rattling off so quickly and I am comprehending and answering her.
I struggle with perfectionism, as many of you know, and I forget to be thankful for what I can do instead of what I can't.
I was left at the beauty shop for 3 hours the other day, alone, without the pastor's wife to translate for me. At first I was very nervous, but I decided ....Superalo!, to "get over it" and just step out and spoke. Once I did, the ice was broken and I didn't care that my conjugation was perfect or that I forgot to put my direct object in front of the correct word, etc. etc. I just enjoyed the time in being able to be alone, without an interpretor, in a 3rd World Country, communicating with the people and making myself understood in their language. Who cares if I sounded like a 3 year old or 5 year old, I was being understood.
Fear and Pride have no place in the learning experience. NONE> When fear and pride come together, they become a powerful force to hinder you in whatever you do.
Sometimes I think God wants to see just what it will take to make us quit. It feels that way. So....do we bow down to the fear and pride, or do we stand up to it, like a giant in our lives? True faith has no fear! God is showing me this through perfecting the spanish language. Of course we know this in our heads and have heard it all our lives, but when you are facing that mountain.....confront it as a child would do, fully trusting in his father....without fear. Children learn things quickly, especially a 2nd language. They approach it without fear and have no pride to fight as they approach the new venture. Two children, speaking two completely different languages, can play together all day long without any thought of how they say things or if they are correct, yet, eventually and quickly, they learn each other's language.
So, my desire is to become as a little child, have the faith of a little child and simply step out and try.
"Superalo! Get over it!
What a fool I must look like or sound like, no matter how wonderful they tell me I am doing, one shouldn't have to SWEAT so much to carry on a conversation or to preach a simple message. My perfectionism is dying daily here in Honduras. Maybe that was God's plan all along. hmmmm.....I'm smiling.