The Mill- Sifting Through the Stuff of Life.

This morning I read this quote in Kem Meyers book “Less Clutter, Less Noise” from the ”New Rebellion Handbook” , “Your life bears a message, a message of hope and redemption.  But, before people in your world encounter your message, they encounter you.”  I’m not sure anything else needs to be said.  I beleive as a follower of Christ that we’ll only have an opportunity to share that message of hope and redemption if we get out of our own way and eliminate some of the petty things that we get uptight about and live a life of compassion and love.  There’s nothing more annoying than a cantankerous, ill tempered, complaining, unthankful, prejudice  Christian, if that’s possible.  So don’t be one.  Is that too abrasive?  ok then stop it.

My wife Cindy and I, find ourselves doing a lot of marriage counseling.  It’s not clinical per se, but rather very relational and most of the time in our baement.  It’s clear to me that no one is really good at marriage when left to their own abilities.  We are all pretty bad at it, outside a relationship with God.  What I find interesting is most of the time our dream of growing up meeting someone, having a unique close connection marrying and living happily ever after seems to always get put on hold by how we can make more money, accumulate stuff, get a better education, raise the children.  We spend countless hours on these things and truly believe that they will make us happy, while the relationship that will make us happy is ignored or even abused by neglect.  We spend much of our life in school to learn what we need to be successful in our careers, but we spend zero time studying how to have a great marriage. Most of the time the only thing that we have to go on is our parents marriage or some relative who were probably no good at either.  Study your spouse, learn what they like, apply scriptures that you generally apply to everyone else to the person closest to you.  It will be worth it.  There are only two true covenant relationships that remain, focus on those and the rest will follow.