"The LORD your God will change your heart and the hearts of all your descendants, so that you will love him with all your heart and soul and so you may live!” (Deuteronomy 30:6 NLT)
When I first moved out on my own, I didn’t have a tool box. My parents gave me a little hammer. Nested inside this hollow hammer were an even smaller flathead screwdriver and a tiny Phillips screwdriver. These three tools enabled me to put together my first dinette set and fix a lot of the minor issues I encountered in my first apartment. It didn’t take long before I realized the limitations of these little tools. After my husband and I moved into a house, we went out and bought power tools.
When we want to fix someone, we naturally grab onto familiar tools we have at hand. If our family of origin used blame, shame, guilt, and force, we may easily fall into the same pattern. These tools may seem like quick fixes, but they rarely work in the long run. Unconditional love and acceptance, on the other hand, have transformative power. These new tools may seem unfamiliar and inefficient. It is tempting to go back to old patterns of coercion and manipulation, especially when there is little evidence of progress. But God’s way is better. He sands down our unfinished parts and those of our children as well. His power is life changing, full of grace, and heals us from the inside out.
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