Welcome to day 23 of STAND OUT: 7 traits of a counter cultural life! You can find every post in this series indexed here.
I spent yesterday morning at my grandmother’s house. We sat at the table in her breakfast nook and chatted about life. I shared with her how tired I am right now and how hard parenting a teenager is. She smiled and assured me it would get better — but it might take awhile. My cousin came by and my grandaddy joined us at the table and we caught up on the doings in each other’s lives. My aunt joined us for lunch. As we sat around the dining room table eating the best pimiento cheese I have ever tasted in my life, I realized how rich my life is. To be able to spend an average Thursday morning in October with family is a gift, especially after so many years of living far, far away from my family.
Wednesday night I was chatting with a friend after church and we were sharing how thankful we are for each other. We have that kind of friendship where we can be really honest about the struggles we have, the fears and insecurities we deal with, and the real mess that is trying to parent a teenage girl. As I got in the car to leave church, I thought about how precious that friendship is.
See, not only have I learned I can’t do it all … I also know I need you!
I need other women who will commiserate with me about mothering and the never ending laundry. I need moms a little {or a lot!} further down the road to point me back to truth when my feelings begin to have too much sway in my thinking. I need sisters to come alongside me when I’m overwhelmed and exhausted. I need those college-age girls who introduce me to the awesomeness that is One Tree Hill and also want me to help them grow in their understanding of the Word. I need the friends who send a text that says, “Praying for you!” and the ones who laugh when I send the photo of the dishes piled high in my sink and then send back a quick, “I feel your pain.”
I need you to share your recipes for crock pot meals and tell me the secret to making the perfect pumpkin roll. But I also need you to quit saying “Fine” when I ask how you are and go ahead and admit you’re barely hanging on. {Because most days, I’m barely hanging on too … and I need to know you get it.}
Girls, I need you … and I’m guessing you need me too. God made us to need Him and to need each other. He hard-wired us for relationship.
Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2
When we are honest and open with each other, both in the good times and bad, we’re fulfilling the law of Christ. Remember when He said this,
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. John 13:34
Jesus said those words to His disciples … the guys He walked around with and shared meals with. For three years, He had these twelve men with Him all. the. time. He’d seen them at their worst and their best — and He loved them. And that’s what He says to us — love each other. Do life together.
God made us to need each other! He created us for relationship with Him and others! #StandOut Click To Tweet
I know, it makes us vulnerable and it’s scary and, the truth is, we’re going to get hurt. But learning to depend on others and allowing them into our often messy lives is one of the most beautiful ways we live for Christ in a world that values independence and self-sufficiency.
So, what do you say? Will you embrace the gift of honest relationships, of needing others and letting them see the real you?
xo,
Teri Lynne
image source: Lightstock
Thick and thin, highs and lows, I’m grateful for you. Yes, I need you. But mostly because in the laughs, tears, and rants you point me to Jesus which is who we all really need.
Yes, yes, yes! And you do that for me … so thankful our little words collided all those years ago through this crazy online world.
God Bless and give you grace and lots of good friends. Grandma is right on both counts. As a mother of a daughter who is now 24, I understand. Had her at almost 40 yrs old and I thought she would kill me, but I lived though it, and you will too. No sense can be made of most of it, just pray to keep your head and your Godly wisdom intact! Lean on Jesus and those friends sweet lady.
Praying for you,
Ms Linda Darlene
“No sense can be made of most of it” … that is gold! With a teenager in the house, it is so true – they can’t make sense of all they feel and think and want … all we can do is love them well and point them to Jesus who loves them even more and even better than we do.