I think a lot, cooking and baking are times when I am able to ponder and God is able to talk to me. There is something theraputic when I am pounding cabbage into sauerkraut. For a whole ten mintues there is really nothing to do but pound and think. Today while prepping stir fry veggies for supper, I was thinking about weaknesses. Weaknesses both in myself and in others. I thought about how weaknesses are not really weaknesses. Weaknesses I think are things God has put in my life and in others lives that will make me need others. It would make me need to interact and be in the lives of others.
I have the ability to cook and bake, I’m good at it. God has given me a wisdom that blows even my mind away at what comes out of it. But he has not made me diligent, nor am I terrific at decorating my house. I am often disorganized and cluttered. My mom is an amazing organizer, she is compassionate, and a great listener. She can bake the best batch of cookies I have ever eatten. My sister Emily can decorate like nobodies business, she is a gifted kindergarten teacher, and has connected with my four year old Maddie in a way no one else has. The name Emily immediately brightens my daughters eyes. My sister Kelly is amazing at encouraging others, she has the abilty to confront people that I can only stand back in awe at. She is amazing at accepting people for where they are at and not expecting anything else, yet applauding when something is accomplished. You get the point. My sisters and mom, my dad and Mark have strengths that I can call upon and utilize.
However, when I have pinpointed a weakness in my life, this does not mean I am off the hook and do not have to work on my weaknesses, because it’s anothers strength. Quite the opposite, I am to glean and learn from that person with the strength. I am to take in and consider how I can implement what they do so easily in a way I can manage in my own life. I am to learn from my mom how to organize, I am to learn from Emily how to teach Maddie and how to decorate my home, I am to learn from Kelly to lay off of others and love them anyways. I am to learn from Mark diligence (Maddie is potty trained because Mark stuck in there when I wanted to quite).
Because we all have weaknesses we need to love on another. We need not condemn one man/woman for a life style or something they do, but love them regardless. This DOES NOT MEAN being in an abusive or hurtful relationship. This does NOT mean allowing someone else to continue to do hurtful or abusive things. But it does mean seeing everyone as men and woman who have been born in to sin and need to be saved by Jesus Christ. This does mean we need to see our sin and weaknesses and use them for the glory of God. We are to as Hebrews 12:1 says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” So that we can say confidently of this,” that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” Philippians 1:6.
1 Corinthians 12: 12- 27:
12 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body–whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free–and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
We need each other, weaknesses and all.