Tag Archives: Support

Freedom of Partnerships

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Photo credit: InMagine.com

Flynn left the kids and me, just for a week but I got a GLIMPSE of single motherhood. I say a GLIMPSE because I knew, Lord willing, my husband would return after a ministry conference and be there again to partner with me in parenting. Also, my time with my sons was them being with me; I didn’t have to work outside the home like most single mothers do. It was only my job temporarily to physically provide for my children’s wants and needs and I did so with God’s grace. We had a great time at the drive-in movie theater, watching our city’s fireworks display, running around the playground, going to the library and having dinner with family friends. On a few outings I was alone with them. On two others I was with my single-for-the-week sister and her children and my-single-for-the-week friend and her daughter (Both their husbands were out of town, too). We have always respected single mothers, but our GLIMPSE into that sisterhood helped us appreciate them more AND cherish the freedom that can come with being married to men who take their fatherhood as seriously as we take our motherhood. Though we are bound by marriage (1 Corinthians 7:33, 39) our fatherhood-engaged husbands allow us to disengage from motherhood from time to time. For this reason, I encouraged Flynn to go away and basked in his return.

My dynamic with Flynn got me thinking about the freedom we have in healthy life partnerships—those we have in marriage, in friendship and with biological and spiritual families. Do we take these for granted or do we avoid them, knowing someone’s freedom in the partnership may at times mean for us a burden, one that we are unwilling to carry? As we celebrate our country’s freedom to self-govern, I want us to honor the freedom that healthy partnerships bring to our lives, those God-ordained relationships that the Bible speaks so clearly of. We must help one another, seek to refresh others so that we, too, might be refreshed (Proverbs 11:25). This is a path to our freedom that followers of Christ must lovingly take to benefit us all. Let us seek and celebrate the freedoms we have in Christ (John 8:32, 36; Romans 6:18-23, 8; Galatians 4-5:1, 16).

My One Thousand Gifts List

#121-130
Milk to nurse Justus
The children loving love
Flynn initiating prayer with the family before he and Joshua left for the day (and though they were running late)
God showing me that I’m not satisfied satisfying Him
Supplies for Joshua’s Black History Month project
Working with Joshua on his Black History Month project
Joshua wanting me to sleep with and Nate
Joshua not wanting me to leave his room
Impressing me to apologize to Joshua for hurting his feelings
Floyd taking Joshua to his piano lesson

The Power of One Another

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I hope you’ve had a chance to ponder on the “One Another” scriptures I posted on Wednesday. I don’t know what they did in your heart or what you observed about them, but this is what God was screaming to me: We have to fulfill these scriptures because we are commanded to and the only way we can fulfill them is to be in close relationship with others. I know if we all understood this—not just in our minds but in our hearts, Christians’ lives would be more unified, more mature, more powerful and a lot more stress-free.

Unified—brought together to form a single unit or entity* (John 13:35)
Jesus said the world would know us Christians by our love for each other. When people see us loving on each other through the “One Another” scriptures, it will be clearly evident that we are not just moral people doing good things but that we belong to Jesus Christ, that He is the one who brought us together to form the single unit of the body of Christ.

Maturity—the state of being fully grown or developed (Ephesians 4:11-13)
Being in relationship with others striving like you provides the space to challenge any stagnation. As we fulfill the “One Another” scriptures, we help each other to examine ourselves and move beyond our immaturities, be they emotional, social, mental or spiritual.

Powerful—having or exerting great physical or mental strength; possessing the strength or qualities to produce a fast and effective result; able to produce a strong effect on people’s ideas or emotions (Acts 1:8).
Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit so we’d have power to live impactful lives. Living out the “One Another” scriptures causes us to allow the Holy Spirit to lead our lives, thus making dramatic change for the better in our and others’ lives.

Stress-free—free from mental, emotional or physical strain (James 5:16)
When the “One Another” scriptures are in effect, we have the support of other Christians and know we aren’t alone in our battles. Sure God is our ultimate help, but He placed us in each others’ lives to be able to combat opposing forces together.

I know many of us have not had positive experiences being close with others, even other Christians. Because of these experiences, we may be hesitant to fulfill the “One Another” scriptures and allow others to help us through them. Please know this: your bad experience shaped your past reality but through faith Jesus can control your current and future realities. You must believe that by following the commands of His scriptures you will reap the good that God intends for you to reap (John 10:10). “Oh taste and see that the Lord is good” so you can be on your way to a unified, mature, powerful and stress-free life (Psalm 34:8).

Copyright 2009 by Rhonda J. Smith
*All definitions taken from the Encarta Dictionary English (North America)