the Good News

Ok, so I realize this might not be real news to many of us. But it has been revealed to me slowly after many years of relationships and people-watching, analyzing, processing their 'stuff.' Nobody has it all together. No one has the perfect life. The perfect spouse, parents, siblings, children, in-laws. They don't have the perfect neighborhood (no matter how fun, and friendly and wonderful it looks; nope, it's not perfect.) They don't have the perfect relationships. Mommy and Daddy are not really Barbie and Ken in real life. They are mostly more like Fred and Wilma or Lucy and Ricky. But not edited for family television. Most people have interactions in their home that they would like to rewind every day! Don't you? I do. For sure. Take back that look. Change that tone of voice. Not say more than needed to be said. Not to have yelled, threatened, freaked out crazy-mom style........Yes, many opportunities present themselves daily in which we show our true colors. What we are really like when the Pastor isn't over for dinner or the church friends aren't watching you 'discipline' your unruly children........Many opportunities to fall into sin and selfishness in our relationship with our spouse. Forgetting that we are called to put the other first. Forgetting we are commanded to love in relationship like Christ loves the Church! Forgetting that God ordained this marriage and we are HIS chosen vessels that He wants to use to accomplish His purposes on this earth! That's big stuff! But that's the good stuff! The bad news is, nobody is perfect. The good news is..............(drumroll please~~~~~~~~~~) WE HAVE A SAVIOR! We know a guy who can change everything. He can change us into the people he has planned for us to be. Don't get me wrong, we still might not look or act or think perfectly, but we will be in the process of becoming the kind of person that God wants us to be! We can seek to honor God in all of the interactions throughout our wildly busy days. Waking up. Getting up. That can even be hard for some of us! Taking care of our loved ones. Loving them well. For this, we must get down on our knees and ask for that supernatural infusion of holy grace-love-kindness good-stuff that will enable us to 'spill' love, hope, peace, goodness, faithfulness, self-control, when life tips us forward and back or we get bumped real hard. What oozes out of you when Life hits you hard? It's good to know we have a friend that will always be there for us. He never leaves. He is always fateful. He loves us enough to inspire our hearts to WANT to change. To WANT to be holy. To WANT to be kind in the face of meanness, to WANT to turn the other cheek, walk the extra mile, take the worst spot or get to go last. He changes us when we stop looking at one another (and how perfectly perfect every piece of their life SEEMS to be) and LOOK TO JESUS for the picture of what perfect is! He is the goal. He is the prize. Why we live, laugh, love, work, play, learn, move, grow. He is all we need and he is all the inspiration we need to stop comparing ourselves and our lives to others and to commit to building up others in the body of Christ and loving them in their 'imperfections,' and also to keep hitting the ground with our knees, asking Jesus to change us, make us new, make us like Him so that we can do this LIFE His way! Because in the end, it's what HE thinks of our lives that matters!