Every community (or family or relationship) has its frustrations and downfalls. Worldwide or next-door, we'd all agree that change is needed. Some days you can't help but grow overwhelmed by it all. Maybe it's the world you're trying to change or maybe it's that close friend, crazy family member or everyone in-between. Someone (my mother) wisely advised me that when I couldn't change things, maybe Jude could. I'd never thought about him and my role as a mother quite like that. The thought instantly broadened my hope. As an eldest, strong-willed child, I'm used to feeling as though everything's up to me. My responsibility to perpetuate good things in the world is still there, but it's not solely based on me.
There is sometimes an immediacy to wanting to change things and people. To impatient folk like myself, it feels like if it's not changing soon, then change will never come. When people disappoint and nothing I do helps, maybe I'm not the person for the job. Or maybe I'm just approaching the job from the wrong place. I think there is enormous value in nurturing relationships that I've consistently overlooked. The good (or bad) we do is often from a distance, 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon-style. Our relationship with our children, how they grow and develop isn't just a box to be checked with "acceptable" or "unacceptable", but potential lives to be changed by how I parent. What kind of people will my children be? What opportunities will they have to touch people's lives and will they accept them with open arms? What am I teaching my child that is preparing her to change her world?
Think of the last frustrating conversation you had where you just wished you could change someone. If you can't change someone, then maybe someone you're loving right now can. Today let's try to remember that every relationship is important and exponentially life changing!
There is sometimes an immediacy to wanting to change things and people. To impatient folk like myself, it feels like if it's not changing soon, then change will never come. When people disappoint and nothing I do helps, maybe I'm not the person for the job. Or maybe I'm just approaching the job from the wrong place. I think there is enormous value in nurturing relationships that I've consistently overlooked. The good (or bad) we do is often from a distance, 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon-style. Our relationship with our children, how they grow and develop isn't just a box to be checked with "acceptable" or "unacceptable", but potential lives to be changed by how I parent. What kind of people will my children be? What opportunities will they have to touch people's lives and will they accept them with open arms? What am I teaching my child that is preparing her to change her world?
Think of the last frustrating conversation you had where you just wished you could change someone. If you can't change someone, then maybe someone you're loving right now can. Today let's try to remember that every relationship is important and exponentially life changing!
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| Before we give up on anything, just think of what God can do with willing hearts! |
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