“…for out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.” Matt. 12:34-35
Are you in need of a relational miracle? We Cleary’s have stepped out in obedience and faith this month, and have endured a lot of hatred, but as we keep our eyes on our Savior, He works miracles. One such miracle happened a few days ago ~~~
A woman come up to Betsy in a public setting and totally “went off on me”. I answered this woman kindly, as 2 of my friends walked up and took over the conversation so I could hastily duck out and leave this scene. ~~Some 3 hours later, in the Costco parking lot, this same woman came running up from behind me…(Oh no, what now?)
I spun about to greet this woman, and noticed that the countenance on her face had completely changed from her morning fury. ~~For whatever reason, and before she got a word out of her mouth, I reached out and embraced her with a lingering hug. She stumbled back, somewhat bewildered…then proceeded to apologize to me for all the terrible things she had said earlier (emphasizing to me that I ‘had no idea of how badly she had bad mouthed me, and that she didn’t even know me, which makes it worse’.). I just loved on her, sharing that I had been praying for her all morning, then I shared Jesus. She was spell bound as she got to witness Christ. She left me with a hug saying that she couldn’t believe that I would be so kind to her after what she had done to me. But more importantly, she exclaimed, “You are not like the Christians I know. You are soooo different. ~~~I want to know the Jesus you know.”
Jesus IS the reason for this season!
What kind of relational miracle might you need in your life right now?
The holiday season, Thanksgiving through New Years, brings out heightened emotions…positive and negative. And with these holidays, we experience relationship. We experience relationship with people whom cause passion to be stirred inside of us (good and bad).
We Cleary’s have to regularly remind ourselves: With “passionate” relationships of a more negative bent, we are called to do our part…but also to allow God to do His part. God is the only one who can do His part ~~~ and we may break under the weight we were never meant to bear.
We cannot change another soul, but we can continue to work on ourselves… (And that’s a full time job!)
God bless you this Christmas. He IS the reason we celebrate!
Much love,
Shaun and Betsy
