Click here to read yesterday's brain dump.
Click here to read Cetelia's brain dumps.
Note: Although I'm trying to catch as many errors as I can, please overlook any grammatical mistakes, missing words, and mispellings you find in this post (yeah, I misspelled "misspellings" on purpose to give you some practice at overlooking any other mistakes you see).
a. Today Max and I made the 2.5 hour drive to Waco. Thanks to my bud LMM, I had a meeting with a pastor who wants Marriage Works! to 1) train his life group leaders on how to provide marriage counseling, and 2) develop a system folks go through from engagement through the first year of marriage. More on that later.
b. After the meeting, Max and I had lunch with LMM. We had a great conversation, and I thought it further strengthened our friendship of almost 20 years.
c. I had a great conversation with MH, and she really encouraged me to keep writing and exploring how I feel about this transition to Texas. She helped me see that by tackling my own giants, I give others permission to tackle theirs. Thanks, MH!
d. I'm finding my faith in God increasing as we walk through this season. My attribute for God during family prayer tonight was him being a way-maker. Putting my confidence in his ability, which is where he wants it to be, provides me the stability I need from day-to-day no matter what's going on around me.
e.Cetelia has been writing about how she's partnering with God to respond differently to me. This is encouraging to me because she and I have been bumping heads lately. It seemed that when I told her about how she was making me feel, she pushed back, which made me want to shut down.
f. I recall walking out the house in Fort Worth one morning last week, looking up to the sky and saying, "God, she's your daughter, and I commit her to you." A day or two later I woke up, and the first thing I heard in my heart was, "Live at peace with her" (based on Romans 12:18).
g. That became my goal, and it has not been easy. Still, I've taken the attitude that I can only control what I do, and only have influence in her life.
h.This recent rough road has helped me generate a lot of good notes on conflict management, and I plan to share them in an interview this weekend, and create a new resource soon.
i. I love Cetelia. She's a good woman. We're learning how to live with and love one another during change. Although everyday has not been easy, I'm happy that we've both committed to growing in our individual relationship with Christ. That, in my estimation, is what's at the core of making our marriage work.
