This weekend my beloved and I will be traveling about two hours to welcome home my brother from a trip overseas. In many, many ways we are very different. Even people who have interacted with the both of us have a hard time seeing that we are brothers. But some how we keep a little close.When I left for basic training back in 1986, I left having a girlfriend who vowed she'd wait for my return. I did return, but I could tell something was different. Three months later I overhear a conversation between my GF and my brother, and I knew - but refused to believe - what the difference was. Still, it took another three months, when they announced that they would be getting married before it really slammed into me. Years later, after a very nasty divorce on his part, I told him, "of all the contests we had between each other growing up, that was one that I was really glad that you won".
My brother is a professing, and an actively practicing, pagan. The part that pains me the most was he once told me that he had questions about Christianity that no one could answer. My reply to him was that he had never asked me those questions - and to this day has refused to share those questions with me.
But somehow, through all of our differences, we seem to understand each other. He is married for the third time, but this one really seems to be a good fit for him. I've missed him somewhat and it will be good to catch up with him and the rest of my family.
May God bless each of you wherever He may lead you this weekend.
Verse for today:Proverbs 18:19-24, ESV
A brother offended is more unyielding than a strong city,
and quarreling is like the bars of a castle.
From the fruit of a man's mouth his stomach is satisfied;
he is satisfied by the yield of his lips.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
and those who love it will eat its fruits.
He who finds a wife finds a good thing
and obtains favor from the Lord.
The poor use entreaties,
but the rich answer roughly.
A man of many companions may come to ruin,
but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
3 comments:
I thank God you are in his life and that you did not shut him out because he has not come to faith yet. You will there for him; you will be Jesus for him at first. I pray for your wisdom and discernment for him and that God would remove the spiritual scales from his eyes. Siblings are precious.
Thank you Linda... I know no one is beyond redemption. I am just not always convinced of what influence I really have. Only God does know.
It's such a delicate balance, isn't it? I am hoping that you had a nice visit. I pray that you will see the fruit of your patience and that God gives you wisdom for the right words at the right times. I also pray that God places people in your brother's path that will cause those questions to surface and get answered.
Susan
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