Relationship struggles

"Everything is created inside of relationship, and is an expression of relationship. This is a God who has never been alone-- The Trinity has never done anything alone, and has never been without community. Not one person of this relationship is diminished or absorbed, and all Truth begins and ends with Jesus and relationship he has always had with the Father and the Spirit."
(William Paul Young)

Struggle with relationships? Me too. The world takes that which is meant to glorify God and twists it to distract us from that which really matters...adding to the chaos of this world. Today I am challenged to love the unlovable, for I too am often unlovable; to extend grace where is has been extended to me, and to look at the standard in all relationships (Jesus) and ask what I can I do in this moment to glorify my Lord in this relationship? Today, I challenge you to do the same.

In the beginning the Word already existed.
The Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He existed in the beginning with God.
God created everything through him,
and nothing was created except through him.
The Word gave life to everything that was created,
and his life brought light to everyone.
The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness can never extinguish it.
(John 1:1-5)

"Give up the hair straitener" He said...  and so I did.  I had been looking for something, and since I had been so heavily convicted on my minor obsession about body image it only made sense...

Lent had already started, and apparently it was all the rage to just let hair be hair in the "glam" industry, so why not? 15 minutes less in front of the mirror would be time well spent elsewhere.

But giving up the straitener lead me to more pressing questions... questions not of outside appearances but questions of the heart.

Was it because of my rebellious nature that I needed to straiten and not allow curl, lighten and not allow dark, or tighten and not allow a little bulge?  (I wont expand on that last one)  "You always want what you don't have" another culture lie sifting its way into the church. Could it be that I was telling God what he had given me wasn't good enough, tall enough, long enough, high enough for me to not only survive but thrive in this world?  And even deeper than that... What was it about the real me that was unacceptable, and to whom?

Ok, the closer you get to 40 the more comfy you are in your own skin, but at the same time, listening to this deeper nagging in me lead me somewhere.  Yes, I was wounded, but who isn't? (Poor victims of others teasing each one of us are) It really struck me as I talked to Him about it...

Is all I have given you the way I have given it to you really enough? Enough for what? What you are asked to do, day by day, moment to moment.  I laughed out loud as a picture of myself in heaven with crazy curly brown 80's hair passed though my mind...  Enough, more than enough. We sing it, but do we live it?  Our build, our eye colour, our nose, lips, cheeks, yes even wrinkles.  In this world.  As physical beings, mortal bodies.

Is He more than enough for you today?

  

This passage was an encouragement to me as I looked at the coming week...  The coming week filled with kids at home on March break, filled with a major event at the end of the week, and planning leading up to it.

The same power that rose Jesus from the grave... lives in us. Will give LIFE to your MORTAL bodies...

If you are a mom, if you work from home, if you are feeling dragged down and out and tired, ASK.

Father, please help me to keep my cool this week as I work and have beautiful interrupted working time with my children.  Give me a focused sound mind, as your word tells us you have, and with the same Spirit that rose Jesus from the dead, sustain my being to reflect back to you the beauty you are in us.  In the way we act and interact help us to maintain peace, and hear your voice as clearly as when I am alone with you.  Show me a better way - to walk with you surrounded by a cloud of witnesses to delight in you and glorify your name. Know you will do it!  Amen.