Perspective

We have a blended family. The other day, I bought a blender, so that I could start making yogurt smoothies again. Our old blender...seems to have sprouted legs and walked away. (Most likely we took it to church, and it found a new home elsewhere, but...who knows.) So. New blender. Today I threw in some berries, yogurt, and honey...and a little water to make everything mix up better. I hit 'liquefy' and walked away for a good 3 minutes before I stopped the blender. I poured that smoothie into a glass, and enjoyed every last drop. But despite my extended 'liquefy' time...I noticed one thing. There were still big, unaltered berries in my smoothie. Now I could sit here and think - well - darn - I should have bought a better blender. But instead, I am thinking - what a perfect analogy for my life. No matter how long we work at it, we still have some 'bumps' in our family that just need to be taken as they are. It's no secret that my stepdaughter and I have had plenty of struggles in our relationship. And it's not just the two of us - she has struggled with her place in our family, and in the world, and along the way, as most of us do, she's made some choices we wish she wouldn't have made. I know, at times, she has thought (and maybe I have as well) that our family was just screwed up beyond repair. Since she's been working though, I have found something interesting. She works with the biggest bunch of people from entirely screwed up backgrounds. We've got drug addicts, prostitutes, people whose lives are literally falling apart. And God plunked our girl right in the midst of all that. I'm not sure if it has occurred to her yet - that her family is far less screwed up than she may have imagined - but it has DEFINITELY occurred to me. Tonight one of her coworkers is spending the night at our house. She spent the night last week, and has become a frequent 'hanger outer' in our company. I prayed the first night she was here for God to just show me how to be Him to her. She's got a lot of issues, see...and my natural instinct is to point out everything and how to change it. But He's led me in a different way...to just BE. We're just HERE. Somewhere she can hang out, that isn't about the mess at her house, isn't about the mess at work, isn't about anything but just hanging out, and seeing how people love on each other. I don't know where it's going to go. I wonder if, at some point, it will be the right time to bring her to church with us, or to share our faith with her. She's such a sweet 'kid' (I put kid in quotes, because she IS a kid - only 19 - the same age as our oldest...but she's so old for her age. She has a lot on her shoulders. I still believe the people in our lives are there because God has a plan. I am interested to see what His plan is here. Also kind of impatient. And I want another smoothie. (Because dang...I make good smoothies. Also - fat free. Yum!)