A Brother's Love this Holiday Season...

We wish all of you the very best this holiday season.  Hopefully this will be a time of restoration for you and your family. 

This past year has been hard for me concerning my father and his side of the family especially when it comes to my younger brother.  About 7 months ago we had bit of a falling out and we haven't spoken since.  I think we have just been waiting on the other to make the first move.  He's only eighteen and we haven't had a lot of time together over the years because we lived with different parents.  When we have been together I've always considered it time well spent and always wished I would have been able to be more of a brother to him growing up.  The last time we spoke he told me I was never there for him as he was cussing me out.

He happened to be my cashier at the Burger King drive through today.  We said a few words and as I was driving off he told me he loved me.  That will likely turn out to be my greatest Christmas gift this year.  I hope he and I are able to continue to be restored with one another.  We all need to be loved...

I'm thinking...

that most of us forget God created us to be whole and complete.  We were meant for so much more than we sometimes limit ourselves to.  Over the month and a half we have been working with our first single mother.  She has many strengths; she is responsible, trusting, sincere, as well as many others.  Though she has many strengths she also struggles to herself as a person who can do incredible things with her life.  All too often the people in her life have told her that she can't do it or she's not worth.  It's so hard to see people broken in this way and just when I want to feel pity I remember my own struggles in this area.  The Fall not only separated us from God but it also separated us from our true selves.  I'm so thankful that Jesus came to rescue us.  He is our hero who sees us for who we really are.