Buckled In

"With Jesus' help, we can silence the voices that tell us we have to be perfect to be loved by him."

Sweet Daddy and I met in the summer of 1993. We somehow had walked the halls of an elementary school, middle school, and high school and never met. We met in a mutual friend's basement the summer after I graduated from high school. Immediately upon meeting him, I deemed him "marriage material" for someone else. You see, I was knee deep in my bad boy dating phase. 

Over the next 4.5 years, Sweet Daddy and I became close friends. We traveled together, adventured together, and spent lots of time together. As friends. 

In October of 1997, I finally realized that not only did I love him, but I was IN love with him. I worked up my courage one night, as we sat in the back of a pick up truck staring at the stars to say it - "I am in love with you." To which he said NOTHING. I looked over and he was snoring. Seriously slept through my entire speech. I decided then, the next move would have to be his. And he finally made it there Christmas Day of 1997.

Because our romance began with a sound friendship, my strengths and weaknesses were already known. He had seen my no make up, hairs a mess, I just woke up look. He knew I'm unbearable to be around until I've been fed. And regularly. He knew I cry, easily. There wasn't much he didn't know.

Oddly, there was great comfort in that. He knew me, better than anyone else, and loved me anyway. 

You see relationships are messy. We've been married 15 years now - and it's a roller coaster at best. I take great comfort in knowing when I'm overwhelmed, and feel like I might just throw up, or I want to get off - he's buckled firmly in next to me. 

Jesus wants that kind of relationship with us. To know us intimately. Our strengths, our weaknesses. Relationships are not perfect. He doesn't expect perfect from us, just transparency.

Isn't that the message of the gospel, the good news? Regardless of our flaws, God loves us. We will never be "enough" in our book but we are always enough in His. 

"That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."  2 Cor 12:10

Good relationships take time. Commitment. Investment. Just as Sweet Daddy and I got to know each other slowly over many years, God wants me to invest that kind of time and energy in knowing Him. Being close to Him. 

Mama Warriors, today you are "already changing the world for His glory in just the way He planned: through (your) weaknesses." He's not as loud as the husband, the children, the bills, the world. Find time today to be still and listen for His quiet whisper. You are enough in Him.