Rebuilding Bridges

I am not one for burning bridges on purpose. There have been bridges burned unintentionally by ignorance or lack of communication, however, and I am sorry for those and have forgiven myself and worked harder at not doing so again. There have been plenty of bridges burned by others and I have long since forgiven them, of course (forgiveness is an offering to God). And there have been plenty of bridges I have rebuilt. It seems in life that God has blessed me with restoring these bridges of connection  to people I did not like much the first go round and He calls me to rebuild the bridge I would rather have walked away from and it became a beautiful thing. And here is the thing. We are all God’s children and every good Father (as God is the best) wants His children to love each other and get along and work well together. All have something beautiful or seemingly uneventful to bring to the household and together, God sees the possibility of immense greatness of His beautiful glory shining brightly through and from it. When people do right and maintain or rebuild connection, nothing on earth compares to it. Rebuild a bridge in your life today. It is worth the effort. ❤

Why Board Games are Still Good

My kids and I play board or card games regu!arly still. There are many reasons we do. The first is that it is one big of time without tech where we look at each other (it is good to know what we look like in case we have to give descriptions) and talk out loud. Eye contact can never be underplayed. It is vital to good social connections. And bnoard games are fun. They are a nice break from everything else just to enter a mutually agreed upon world of competition and maybe a little make believe. I mean playing pieces are people, getting to a the finish carrot is important, etc. It is a shared time and place and experience. Thirdly, it teaches kids that someone always wins. In life nowadays where every kid gets a trophy and everyone is a winner is the stupidest thing on earth. I lived in the corporate world for a while and in medicine and in life and someone always is the winner and you lose a lot. And that is a good thing because there is nobility in being happy for someone else’s success and motivating you to maybe go for the gold next time. Also, you sincerely learn more from losing. Maybe you learn you don’t like it, maybe that there are things you could do differently, maybe humility, maybe that participation has its own rewards, whatever. Board games build relationships and fosters connections in a fun way. Worth stopping what you are doing for a bit and invest in each other.

Availability

An enormous problem for those of us who require time and encouragement to truly feel loved is that people are less available than they ever seem to have been. Distance is one variable, as my best friend is a 10 hour drive away. Family is another, as every person of course must take care of their own family life line. Technology is the worst variable. People are “busy” entertaining themselves. One way to cope in an increasingly more evil world. But without a dedicated amount of time with a person, face to face, hand in hand, how can you truly know the drive in the person, what moves them, how you can share life with them most purposefully? Unless you see and learn their passions and pursuits and how to compliment and encourage meaningfully, how can love be deeper than a helpful smile? How do you pursue ways to love and heal someone who crosses your path without dedicating serious time to them? Distractions are everywhere but what I long for is sincere and passionately helpful relationships in which my abilities seem designed to serve another and bring them greater meaning and realization of God’s goodness and who He designed them to be. How can we touch a soul for God if we do not connect with each other. So I appreciate the time my friends take to honor me by learning of me and allow me the honor of knowing and learning them. These treasured moments are life’s breath to me. My entire being appreciates these moments. They stay in my heart. They feed it and make a home there. It is life to me. So, thank you to my friends. And long live your attempts to touch another’s soul. Do not negate its value. Every effort you make in this arena will be rewarded. Nothing is more valuable.

Connections

I consulted with a patient the other day who told me that he could solve all the social wrongs of the world and fighting and disputes. Intrigued, I asked him his plan. He replied that he would teach everyone that we are all relatives. We all come from the same ancestors, the same two people. There are differences in shades, tones, eye color, skills, body type, personalities, so on but we are all related because of and built by the same stuff. DNA in our genes is our commonality, our source of connectedness. Further, we are divinely made, so our mutual Creator also binds us. And I had to agree with him. In an ideal world where this truth was indeed taken as true and factual, we would be looking out for each other because we are all related. However, until Heaven comes, this world is fear from ideal. I would love it to be ideal but there is this thing called evil. There is an enemy of our God who hates us because we were lovingly made by God. So, we have greed, lust for power, ignorance, unholy lust, selfishness, pride, terror, lawlessness, war. People do not want to let these things go. People want to do evil, ignorantly choosing to believe this world is all there is and not realizing there is an eternity to spend somewhere after human flesh has worn out. We have souls. We have souls that are connected. Some connections feel stronger than others because of commonalities, but all are equally validity truth be told. So, my dear patient was quite right in theory but until we embrace that theory as truth and breathe life into it, we will do fine to have a messed up world constantly in need of God’s grace and hope. And thank God we have both when we ask Him for it!