I was talking to my sister about her grad program, and she mentioned something that one of her professors said: in relationships, we all have two questions - 1) "Do I matter?" and 2) "How much?" That has really stuck in my head, and as I think about close relationships of all kinds, and what has made them go better and worse, what's been at the root of conflict, it's amazing how often this plays a big part in it. It's made me think about whether I'm managing my time and energy to prioritize the people that matter to me, and whether I'm communicating this to them in a way that is meaningful to them (and here I'll add, three cheers for love languages and personality typing to help me better learn what is meaningful to my people that might be different than what's meaningful to me). I'm not consistently good at this - I don't think any of us are - but it's helpful to now have these questions as a mental checkpoint.
So why is this something that brings me hope?
Because I can look to my faith to get the most deep, consistent, fulfilling, needful dose of "yes" to the questions, "Do I matter?" and "How much?" The Bible is filled from start to finish with promises of God's love for us and stories about His faithfulness to these promises. It tells me that I matter. And for the question how much, it describes how the Father gave His Son to die because He loves us so much. There's no greater love than this. When I remember that I matter in the deepest way in the most important relationship in my life for all eternity, this brings incredible hope and gratitude.
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