Challenging People

As I was going to bed tonight, I felt prompted to pray for someone.  This is a person in my life who can be a little challenging.  They would identify themselves as a Christian, but they've got a lot of issues to work out.  Still, this is someone I see fairly regularly, and I think that's a good thing.  For me, and for them.  For me, as I think we're called to spend time with challenging people, as it helps us to work on being patient and forgiving and all of that good stuff.  And for them, as good, christian community is so important and, frankly, life changing.

Anyway, I was prompted to pray for them.  And I was about to pray kind of my standard, 'Lord, help them to ...'  You know the one.  But I stopped, and evaluated for a moment.  And instead I prayed, 'Lord, help me to be more loving.'

Like I said, this person needs a lot of work.  Mind you, we all do - and I generally think of myself as the most flawed individual in the room.  But it just struck me.  We are to be His hands.  I want to figure out how to connect better with them, how to give them some of what they need.  How to help make this person feel secure enough that they can begin to make the necessary changes on their own. 

So, I did pray for God to help them.  But mostly I asked God to work on me.