Teach Me My Lord...

     I want to share with you a wonderful poem my mother wrote me a few years ago.  Whenever I read it, I am reminded of how I must react when those I care about and love, fail and disappoint me.

      So often we elevate relationships and people to a point of worship and even obsession.  This is very dangerous and wrong.  We expect people to meet our needs and when they don't, we end up very disappointed and even heart-broken. People will let us down, whether it is intentional or not, but as Christians, we should not place our hope in people, who will mess up and disappoint us.  Instead, we must place our anchor and expectation in the Lord, who will fulfill our needs and who is forever faithful.   He should be number one in our lives and the most important relationship we seek.  When we lose sight of this and idolize others, this is when it becomes very dangerous. 

    It is so easy to have high expectations of others and to depend so much on them.   So, how should we react when a friend or family member is not as supportive or sympathetic as we would like?  How are we to act towards them?  What would the Lord want us to do? 

   This is what my mom wrote...

"Teach me my Lord to be sweet and gentle in all the events of life, in 

disappointments, in the thoughtlessness of others, in the insincerity of those I trusted, in the unfaithfulness of those on whom I relied. 

 Let me put myself aside, to think of the happiness of others, to hide my little pains and heartaches so that I may be the only one to suffer from them.  

Teach me to profit by the suffering that comes across my path, let me so use it that it mellow me, not harden nor embitter me, that it may make me patient, nor irritable, that it may make me broad in mu forgiveness, not narrow, haughty, and overbearing.  

May no one be less good for having come within my influence.  No one less pure, less true, less kind, less noble, for having been a fellow traveler in our journey toward--Eternal life. " 

     Always remember, friends, to seek the Lord with all your heart, soul, and mind, and place Him first in your life.  Friendships and relationships are a blessing the Lord gives and an encouragement, but they were never meant to take place or to take precedence of our Heavenly Father in our hearts and lives.  

It's always good to think about! :-) 

Have a good start to your week!  

~Grow in Grace~ 

2 Peter 3:18