Wow. What a difference a week makes! One day its cold, windy and rainy with bare trees and brown ground cover, and the next day the its warm, the trees are covered with buds and blooms, and there's a nice little tinge of green coming out in the yards. Well, except my yard. I have nice little yellow flowers covering my yard. It would be nice, if they weren't weeds.
Taking a break from blogger has been good for me. I'm not sure how much I'll be writing in the near future, but it has given me time to ponder, take things in, and enjoy life going on around me again. There's something to be said about contentment, and being happy where we are in life. We are so blessed to have been able to find a house, and find jobs in an economy such as ours. We both found jobs. And we found good jobs. In my case, there was an actual hiring freeze, but I was hired anyway. God is SO good to take care of us that way.
To be honest, I've been in a really down place this past year. Not mad at God...how can I be when He's been so good to us in so many ways? Really, just mad at other Christians. More specifically, Christians who put on a public face of Christianity yet behave in such unChristian behaviors. I've been surrounded by Christians almost exclusively for the past 10 years, and I have to say that the side of Christians I've seen has not been good. Competitive, dog-eat-dog, ambitious mentalities that fostered behaviors that wouldn't fly in a business community let alone a Christian one was something that was a regularity. I could see it working on the Apprentice, but not many other places. There were a few bright spots and genuine people, and I worked hard to foster those friendships, but overall it was not good for me personally to work with people like that, I think because it was so unexpected. I've said it before and I'll say it again, sometimes the world teaches Christians a few lessons in how to behave. It should be the other way around, but there it is. I know we're all human and have our faults, but this was a different level of ministry and those expectations were and are appropriate. I know some of you who read this blog think I'm speaking of particular people. I'm not. Though they fall into the category I speak of, they were just part of a larger group of people who functioned in this way, and saw it as normal.
That said, that is behind me now. God is restoring me and the perspectives I have on others. I used to enjoy encouraging others. I'm beginning to get that back again.
I miss our actual work, and the relationships that were made while overseas. It was a life-changing experience on so many levels. Our kids are better for it. Tim and I are better for it. And now we're taking it to the communities and jobs where we live and work. We are working on being the right example to those around us. We still have good, genuine Christians around us, and I think God prepared them for us, knowing we would have this year of frustration. We are still in ministry, just not in a foreign land. We minister to those around us, and we encourage our fellow laborers and help them with their burdens, just as we are meant to. In the end, that's where the rubber meets the road, isn't it? Here's to our new road, and new beginnings.
No comments:
Post a Comment