Addendum

I haven't done this before.  But I need to do it today.  I need to add to my previous post.

As I was writing about my 'dilemma' earlier,  I was hoping something brilliant would come to mind.  Something which would make it easier to carry out that which I needed to do.  By the end of my post, I felt determination but not conclusion.

I still haven't had 'the talk'.

The talk I need to have with a loved one which may include conflict, which may hurt, which I'm scared of screwing up.  I need grace.  Both to possess and to give.

But not a half hour after writing that last post, I checked my mail (the real mail) and found I'd received a card from another dear friend.

And wouldn't you know it.  Confirmation and encouragement.

Just as we can easily be drawn into the time suck of technology, we can be drawn into a place of emotional draining by other people.  Some of us, maybe more easily than others.  There may be people in life that you completely love and appreciate but know that at the end of the day you will never be all that they want you to be.  Donna Partow calls them 'bucket ladies' but there are men who are this way as well, I'm sure. My friend in her letter called them 'greedy needy'.

It is not unkind to realize that we cannot be all things to all people.

It is not mean to guard your heart.

The card my friend wrote, spoke to my heart.  She told me the truth in love.  The brilliance in my friend's letter was when she wrote, "We are just a mirage where they think they can find water.  But Jesus is the Living Water!  They will never thirst again when they drink Him in.  We must both keep pointing ourselves and them in that direction."  


She wrote exactly what I needed to hear.  On the day I needed to hear it.  When people seem to want more of you than you can give, perhaps it is because you are the only example of Jesus that they have.

Jesus spoke the truth without fear and without sin.

  "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." NIV 1 John 4:18


I am called to love. I am called to speak truth.  If I find myself, in these two things, afraid, I have not yet been made perfect in love.


God, perfect me in Your love.  Thank you for Your answers, Your timing, Your discernment and the words of a friend, spoken in love.