Blessings

While things are not 100% better, I have resolved a few things in my life that have caused friction.

-Christina is engaged to be married. I have had reservations about her relationship, but now have seen that she is happy and will be blessed. I am supporting her. She and I had a good chat, and worked out our tensions and worries. We still have to maintain open lines of communication, as is the case with any relationship, but I'm so grateful that we had enough trust and history to be honest about our thoughts and feelings, and enough commitment to work through differences.

-I led a mission trip nearly four years ago, and one of my team members was a young man with whom I had so much friction. We talked about it at the time, and settled our differences, but I recently realized that for some reason, it still sort of bothered me. I saw him online tonight, and we chatted for a while. We were able to talk about the problems we'd had, and I realized that as much as God used my relationship with this guy to teach me a lot, he had also learned and grown through the experience. We discovered that we just have completely opposite styles when it comes to life and leadership, and maturity enabled us to understand how, if we are ever in a similar situation, we can work together with the other person to maximize our strengths, rather than give into weaknesses related to conflict. I was so blessed to hear just a little of what great things God is doing in this man's life, and so blessed to be able to exchange thoughts and feelings, and have peace and joy about the situation.

The moral of these stories: If you have issues, seek out the person(s) that has (whether intentionally or not) contributed to them, and be honest about your struggles. Work it out. If you are an adult, you should take responsibility and be proactive.