WATCHING THEM GROW UP

What a joy it is to watch these girls grow up into beautiful ladies. The road has also been rocky and full of pain for both them and Julie and I, but love and grace has a way making all of that bearable. We are learning to live with them in a way (Honorable Relations) that respects them and the process we all (children and adults) find ourselves in. I lived too long with younger people, as an arrogant adult, unaware that the process I was in was really no different than the process they are in. If one is not free, one is not free, no matter what age they might be. What a different world it would be if we all understood that.

One thing that annoys me beyond most other human activities is seeing people being hard on other people for doing very similar things that they themselves are caught up in doing and yet blind to it. This seems to usually stem from the reality that most people seek fulfilment and self gratification by using others. I want to believe they are doing it out of a place of blindness because the other option is just too ugly to imagine. But the result is still the same....a very harsh culture for people to live in and a difficult one in which to find enough space filled with grace so as to find a way out of the destructive cycle. It's my prayer for my daughters and a growing commitment between myself and my wife to create that grace-filled-space right here at home for them to fall into and to be assured of it's permanence.

Ellie is going into the recording studio at the end of this month to record two songs. She was performing one of the songs for some people over the weekend and I was just struck by the lyrics of the song and how it speaks of something she has been able to avoid up to this point in her life. It has saved her much confusion and heartache. My other two daughters have not been so lucky in this area and have already endured much pain and confusion in their young lives. It's so interesting watching how different experiences create different dilemmas/strongholds in people's hearts and minds in which grace and love will be necessary to unwind the complications that have been created. It doesn't matter if it is pride/confusion or guilt/confusion or I've-got-it-all-figured-out/confusion one is trapped in. They are all products of shame and fear and equally destructive prisons.

Grace and love are still the power that will set them/us free and keep them/us free. When I hear those words these days I always think of God's justice. It's what he sent into this dark world, while we were still acting like selfish morons, so as to set things right once again. Aren't you glad? And when I think of Jesus and his life I always think of Honorable Relations. He shows us respect and continues to love us regardless of what we are caught up in because he sees us as valuable and he knows the power of love and grace.

"I’m thinking of a word that has been
Knocked up and overused
You could say it’s lost all meaning
From so much abuse"

I want to live in a way that helps recover, what love really is, from all it's misuse because this growing up stuff is tough and dangerous and confusing...and that doesn't just apply to teenagers.

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