Just As I Am

Please read THIS. It's a reminder of Truth (and Grace).

It seems as soon as I think of something good to write, it takes wings and disappears once I sit down to write.

Oh well.

Compromise - it's usually seen as a bad thing, like "compromising your standards". But the last 8 years of my life I have realized compromise can be a good thing, too. It's the thing that keeps a balanced life. It helps me roll with the punches when something is not, in the grand scheme of things, necessary (though it may be in my mind). The good kind of compromise keeps others' benefit in mind. It doesn't insist upon its own will all the time.

Really, what helps the believer live a well-balanced, compromised life, is the habit of surrender. Surrendering to the Holy Spirit's voice. I hear it, but so often, the noise my own heart or this world shuts it out. Or I've been in the practice so long of doing what I want, I just can't and don't want to. Sometimes when I think something has to be done a certain way, I learn to reevaluate. Listen to the Spirit. He's talking, I just need to listen and surrender.

Compromise or surrender might not seem like a big deal. But it's the little seeds that grow the tree. It's what led us to the church we are at right now. It's what led us to home school. It's vital to our marriage. It's survival in the journey of parenting. It's the unseen glue in friendship.

If only I could compromise, or surrender, best in family relationships. After all, those are the people God has specifically planted in my life. They know me best, they love me best. But they are so close that responding to each other becomes so ordinary, so grey. So hateful and unloving. I really think these are the ones that will shape me. Mold me into Christ-likeness. Surrendering to their needs and not mine will do a world of good. Do I hear the Spirit's voice when I am about to defend myself? Do I hear Him when there is laundry, food to cook, dishes to clean, and I have screaming children? How about when I am angry? Do I just let open the floodgates or do I surrender? Hmm. Loving those who could hurt us the most is hard, but it is also the road to joy.