Posted by jeremyscheller in Family | 1 Comment
I was ready to give up on community living…
We had an empty house over Christmas break. The Mills family, whom we share our home with, was surprised with a vacation. We had about ten days when the our house was our house again.
Admittedly, I loved it. Every minute of it. The house was quiet. The mood was peaceful. There were no kids battling each other for territory. And we didn’t have to deal with the Inter-family idiosyncratic conflicts that make the melding of two families in one home a cause for exhaustion and temperamental uprisings.
I had lost sight of some of the goals. I gave up on some of the gains of community living and I decided that I didn’t want to keep on keeping on with the struggle of reconciliation. Thankfully, I gave it all up; I decided to trust that God doesn’t want me walking around being a total grump about the situation. I asked for help in making an attitude adjustment.
After our house meeting the other night, some things became clear.
- God uses truth to eliminate fear.
- Avoidance is a bigger hurdle to reconciliation than enmity.
- Grace is sufficient.
- We all have a lot to learn, and we’re here to not just move ourselves forward, but to move each other forward.
- Living in community does not mean living under the same roof. It means uniting around common ground and extending love across uncommon ground.
It’s been great watching your communal journey.
p.s. (you know when you tab off this text box it does not go to the submit button? It goes to the search box on the right column. Then I hit enter and lose what I just typed. Only a tinsy winsy bit annoying).