Am I Ready?

That word from 5 Minute Friday got me thinking some more. Today I felt challenged to ask myself-


                                  Am I ready to............




Release

Expectations of others and

Abandon all I'm feeling deserving of,

Die to myself and

Yield to Christ?


This came to me after talking and spending time with loved ones today. Some older and some younger. One of the younger ones asked me, "How do you like your new home?" He showed interest and liked hearing about my life and talking with me. Another one didn't even say hello. One forgot she made a breakfast date with me and never showed up. She felt horrible and was very apologetic.

I don't know which I did more of when I was younger. I would have to ask. Perhaps I showed interest in others. Perhaps I was pretty caught up in myself or life with my friends. Perhaps it was even a little bit of both depending on my mood and the day.

What I do know, now that I have entered a new decade, is that everyone is insensitive or forgetful at times. Each one of us can be pretty darn selfish, just plain careless, or overwhelmed by life.  I don't know what it was like to be a parent raising me all those years ago. I do know I would not want to do the teen years over again. Too much change and for a lot of it, too much pain. Now I realize I could of and should of said thank you a whole lot more for the sacrifices others made.

I also realize, I shouldn't make other people pay when I'm having a bad day. I can and should be pleasant and friendly. I don't always succeed at that. God knows I have failed many times. We all have, haven't we? We all have something that's hard for us. We've all been scraped by the prickers on a rosebush when we've stopped to smell them along our way.

As I have read some of the other posts on FMF, I understand more and more, we really are all in this together. Unless I know someone personally, or they tell me what's really happening in their everyday life, I cannot fathom the struggles they endure or the miles they've walked. Nor can they of me.

It is better to be kind to even the cruelest of strangers than become disgruntled or annoyed. Each and everyone of us at some time, needs a whole lot of grace.

So, I ask myself "Am I READY? Am I willing? Am I able to release, abandon and die to myself? Am I really ready to love God's way?

1 Corinthians 13:5 " (love) does not act unbecomingly ; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered"