to whom do you listen?

by Tim Lewis

This morning a couple sat across from me while I did my best to help with their struggling marriage and family.  We were just like them fifteen or so years ago.  Actually, Christina and I still work through some of the same things. Marriage is never something you check off your to do list.  I was feeling completely inadequate to help them navigate their immediate future. Then I looked up at a photo of my family on the wall behind them.  There are no diplomas on our walls. No certification from the State of North Carolina on our walls.  No awards on our walls.  No ordination plaque from some denomination on our walls. Some of that is in a drawer somewhere.  Some of that doesn’t exist.  None of that is important to us, a choice I sometimes question.

The voice that will not shut up shouted loud and clear…

You don’t know what you are doing.

But then the still, small Voice whispered something like…

Look at Me through your family. Where Love is, I am.
You are qualified.  You are competent.  You are Loved and you have learned to Love.
Their Peace and Contentment are real. Undeniable. You know them. You know this.
Give the people I send to you Hope and teach them Love so they will also know Peace.

I did not actually hear those words audibly, but I was overwhelmed with this awareness.

Just a photo of my family.  A family of  Hope and Love and Peace.  This is important to us, a choice I never question.  I was filled with a sense of accomplishment and determination that could not be framed and hung on a wall.

I said…

Look at the photo of my family on the wall behind you.

Love doesn’t just happen. 

Love is choice that you make.

photography by erin brennan hall