HOLD ME, JESUS: I'M DIFFERENT! WILL YOU LOVE ME, ANYWAY?

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WOMEN IN THE WORD WEDNESDAY
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The last several weeks our focus has been on LOVE, especially in the midst of difficult circumstances. Two things happened yesterday that have been incredible GOD STOPS for me. Sorry, you have to wait until tomorrow to hear about them on TRANSFORMING THURSDAY:0) In the meantime, I need to set the stage.
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Throughout my life I have been connected with hundreds of people who were "down and out" for one reason or another. My father came from a family who endured unbelievable hardships during the depression. As I grew up and moved around with my family as an "army brat", I went to many DIFFERENT schools and met many DIFFERENT people in DIFFERENT cultures with DIFFERENT circumstances. I chose to major in Special Education in the early '70's when the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act was first established. Although I did not know it at the time, I would have opportunity over the years to be a trailblazer or an advocate for people with learning DIFFERENCES.

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Also, in the early 1970's I met and married Steve. Although Steve is the love of my life, he and I are VERY DIFFERENT. Beyond the fact that he's a male and I'm a female, we're both strong in our DIFFERENT personality types, DIFFERENT in birth order, DIFFERENT in giftedness, and DIFFERENT in many of our interests.

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Who would have thought that two such DIFFERENT people would have four children who are so DIFFERENT from each other!?!?! Who would have thought! Over the years, I've come to understand that DIFFERENT members of my family interpret or process things in DIFFERENT ways. We reason DIFFERENTLY! We express DIFFERENTLY! Oh, my! Not only did I go out into the workplace to work with people with extreme DIFFERENCES but I had a family full of DIFFERENCES.
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What I have come to understand is that my goal is not to try to make everyone like me, but to seek to comprehend how to love in spite of the DIFFERENCES. Two of my favorite sayings are:

• "Honor the DIFFERENCES!"
  
• "Not right! Not wrong! Just DIFFERENT!"

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So, why do we judge? Maybe, just maybe, because that's easier than becoming someone who loves enough to be a SUFFERING SERVANT SLAVE!!! That's what we talked about on Monday.

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LORD, your word says that LOVE NEVER FAILS! How do we love those who are so DIFFERENT from us? Is it really by taking the form of a servant? Is it really being patient and kind to even our enemies? Oh, my! This is hard! We'll read Your word today LORD, on Women in the Word Wednesday...we'll learn from You:

Ephesians 3:14-19 "For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which
surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God."
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1 Thessalonians 5:7-24 "But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him. Therefore...l
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• encourage one another
• build up one another, just as you also are doing.
• appreciate those who diligently labor among you...esteem them very highly in love because of their work
• live in peace with one another
• admonish the unruly
• encourage the fainthearted
• help the weak
• be patient with all men
• see that no one repays another with evil for evil
• always seek after that which is good for one another and for all men.
• rejoice always
• pray without ceasing
• in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
• do not quench the Spirit
• do not despise prophetic utterances
• examine everything carefully
• hold fast to that which is good
• abstain from every form of evil

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass."
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Thank you, JESUS!

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NOTE:

In the midst of our Love Never Fails focus, over the last few weeks, I have shown you several video clips of the father/son team of Dick and Rick Hoyt. The most recent one was this past Monday. Honestly, I believe that taking the time to watch this one video clip will be a win/win situation for you. It will ENCOURAGE YOU! It will prepare you for tomorrow's TRANSFORMING THURSDAY post!

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