I want to focus on his wisdom in the blog today. As I said I was meeting with him to look at
our website together and get a ‘younger mind’ perspective. In the character of the apostle Paul he
started out by telling me the good things about our website. He even went on to share that we had most of
the guts (my word) needed for a website to communicate. He then shared with me that while the look
of our web site isn’t bad, it is just out of date. We then proceeded to talk about how to make it
more user friendly, communicate what we wanted communicated more clearly and improve
the look. Then he made a statement that
I shall forever have packed away in my little ‘nugget bag’, “The
goal isn’t to tear away features but to consolidate.”
My mind immediately switched gears from our conversation (of
course he had no clue my mind had left the table) to how many marriages,
families, churches, ministry organizations, etc., I have watched be destroyed
over the past many years because someone didn’t like something anymore and
instead of having the wisdom to know how to consolidate, they became a wrecking
ball. (Please note: I realize that sometimes you cannot
consolidate, so there are exceptions but I am talking generically.)
Consolidate means to:
1.
Make something physically stronger or more solid
“the first phase of the project is to consolidate the outside wall.”
2.
Combine a number of things into a single, more
effective or coherent whole “all manufacturing activities have been
consolidated in new premises.”
Synonyms: combine, unite, merge,
integrate, amalgamate, fuse, synthesize, bring
together, unify
The goal with our website isn’t to go in and tear away features
but to consolidate them, to do whatever it takes to make the website stronger,
more effective, and a more coherent whole.
In marriage and/or family counseling, I’m not looking at the
gaping hole in the wall but I’m listening to see if I have any building
materials left to work with to bring the marriage and/or family back together.
To consolidate, make it stronger with what I have left to work with, not to
destroy it all because of a hole.
In churches and organizations the trend is for someone to
come in and tear away the features of that church and/or ministry organizations
instead of looking for and listening for ways to consolidate those features and
make it stronger and unified. That is a
missing piece of wisdom in our leadership today in many churches and ministry
organizations.
Can I ask you a question?
Is it time to ‘listen’ instead of focusing on the hole in the wall in
your marriage, family, church, and/or ministry organization? Is it time to apply the wisdom of learning
that you don’t have to tear away all the features but you need the wisdom to
know how to consolidate, bring together, unify, etc.?
Please be willing to step back and ask yourself these
questions. Be willing to kneel before
our Heavenly Father and ask Him to show you if Satan has deceived you into
believing a lie that God isn’t big enough to consolidate and strengthen what
the enemy has tried to take a bite out of!
Be praying for Southeast Asia. We are zeroed in on our hotel and hope to
open up registration to the m’s come the first part of March. Our theme is Fight the Good Fight from 1
Timothy 6:12.
Because we have two conferences going back to back please
make sure in your giving to designate to which trip you want sponsorship for
the m’s to go - Southeast Asia (September) and/or Mexico (November).
Love you all and can’t wait to watch all that God is up to
for the m’s that will be attending these retreats.
His,
Vickie
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