As some of you know, I recently started working full-time for a non-profit. I love what they do and how they empower women in their recovery.
The battle against addiction is hard and scary and for some it’s really lonely. I’m so excited to be cheering on the women in our facility as they are walking through recovery.
My first week I made friends with a woman that had been at The Next Door for almost a month. We’re the same age.
And some might look at us and think that’s where what we have in common ends. She has a handful of kids. I have none. She has been married and divorced. I’m single. She was introduced to drugs at the age of 12. I was introduced to sushi at the age of 12.
The way we grew up looks different, the way our families loved us looks different, but God created each of us. He knitted us together in our mother’s wombs, He stitched our personalities together to make us unique, He loved both enough to send His Son to save us.
My sweet, new friend accepted Jesus into her heart a few weeks before I met her, so we are now both His daughters.
My new friend and I think pretty much everything is funny so it doesn’t take much to make us laugh. We both are outgoing and excited for the new beginnings 2021 invites. The new beginnings that Jesus freely gives.
So while we could’ve looked at each other and thought about how different we are, we chose to look at each other and find what’s the same. Turns out we are more similar than we are different.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot in the midst of the inauguration and all of the social media rants.
No matter what side you’re on, what would it look like and feel like to choose to see what we have in common with each person instead of what makes us so different?
It’s a lot easier to initially see the differences, but if we take the time to get to know each person and see their point of view (even if we don’t agree with it?) wouldn’t it make us all a little better?
I’m trying to work on this. I’m fighting to see the good. The world wants us to divide and see the bad and believe the worst of each other… but I know better. I know what is true of each of us.
Thank You Lord for creating each person that is reading this. My prayer is that each morning we declare to see the best in each other and will fight to understand one another. Thank You for making each unique by giving us a common thread in You. In being human. In showing us grace. May we treat each person the way You view us: fully loved, broken but beautiful. All Yours.
xo,
msv
Mary Spencer Veazey 