Relationships.

Homework is calling me..and its Friday night! Crap! Lately, God has been teaching me about relationships. Relationships are one of the best ways that we demonstrate His image in our lives. Relationships can have so many facets and take on so many different shapes. I have an awesome family, a rather large family in fact. I have 6 brothers, of which I am 3 oldest and two sisters, one older one younger. I learned a lot about relationships growing up, living with that many people is a great and sometimes painful educational experience. I guess this background really formed my relational side of me, despite growing up in a "sheltered" home school environment ;).
I feel like I'm pretty good with relationships, as long as the other person is the same, or is relatively the same as I am. Same beliefs, religious, political or whatever, and share the same interests. I love loving people that I am familiar with and who don't take much work to discover who they are.
On the other hand, I shy away from weird people, people who the world looks down on, and shun. But this year, and specifically this semester, God is really opening my eyes, and showing me, that if I am to be effective at all in ministry, then I must embrace everyone, especially those who are hated and hurt. This is the essence of ministry, not to do work for God, but to be like God while we work. This is not something that I have mastered, far from it. I'm writing this, and even now God is bringing new thoughts and insights to mind. Pray with me, that God continues to change my heart, and that I will open myself to love those who are loved less than most. At the beginning of this semester, I prayed that God would bring me more guy friends to supplement my awesome relationship with my girlfriend(she is AWESOME), and He has answered me in ways that I couldn't imagine. God is AMAZING! I would love this to be a conversational blog, to get your feedback, and to see where God has you on your journey.

In Him,
Pete