A painfully beautiful thing has happened in our home since the launch of The Strong Home. I’m gonna just get right to the point. We came to an incredible realization:
The only thing strong about our home is Jesus.
I want this to be very clear. There is nothing strong in us. Anything good you see here is because of Jesus. Anything excellent or praiseworthy – it’s all Him. If you enjoy my pictures or find my stories funny or even if you gain some insight from one of my teaching posts, you will miss the whole point if you don’t see Jesus. Only Jesus.
Let me explain a little further. I sat on the bed with one of my girls the other day and we cried together. You’re not going to see a picture of that on my “Peek into our Week” page or my facebook highlights. We were really sad about being hurt and we just cried together. We were weak.
I told her about something I’d read in my Bible that morning. It’s a little snippet of beauty from the lips of John the Baptist, who lived to point everyone to Jesus.
We both felt totally decreased. We had just encountered something that made us feel hurt and unseen and unimportant and dare-I-say unloved. But God, in His goodness, reminded us of Truth.
As God reminded me in my heart, I reminded my girl that the whole point of this life we live as believers is to decrease, to die to ourselves so that He will increase. As salt and light, we get to point others to Jesus, we don’t point to ourselves.
To anyone on the outside, it seems like that would be really backward logic. We’re taught to better ourselves and reach for success and be all that we can be. We’re told, “Girl, Wash Your Face and quit being less because you are enough!”
But decrease? Die to ourselves?
That hurts.
The really good news is that the hurt is not the end of the story. As my girl and I laid on the bed crying and talking about our hurt and God’s Truth, still feeling weak and wounded, the One who was increasing strengthened us.
The strength didn’t come from within us. The strength came from God through His precious Word as He reminded us of the Truth. This was no temporary strength that came from some sort of platitude that makes us feel good for a little while. God gave us a lasting strength that birthed from our weakness and complete dependence upon our Savior.
He strengthened us as we decreased and He increased.
My girl and I took our eyes off ourselves and had the honor of seeing Him increase in us. We found strength in knowing that our decrease allowed room in our lives for Jesus to increase.
I want to encourage you that what’s so strong about The Strong Home can be what’s so strong about your home too. Today, look at those weak, hurt places in your heart as the perfect spot for Jesus to increase. Give him room to take what the enemy meant for evil and turn it for good (Genesis 50:20).
He is the Strength for our hurt and our weakness.
He is the Strength for all the ways we feel decreased.
It is our privilege as believers to give him those weak places so that He can increase.
