Poor Teddy!

Michael has this adorable teddy bear that he cannot sleep without. If ever I put him down for a nap and his teddy isn't safely tucked into the covers next to him, I have to turn the house upside down practically until I find it. I have found that stuffed bear in many a places. Strange places I might add. Once I found him shoved behind the pots and pans, and another time he was sitting in a chair "reading a book". Now these are just places that he has been left, Michael plays with this silly thing all day as if it were real. He wrestles with it (which is a little confusing for me considering that it isn't alive, so it would be more accurate I guess to say that he jumps on it and throws it all over the living room).  He drives with it in the car safely buckled in beside him and eats with it. Seriously folks, I have to make teddy a plate of imaginary food for him to eat at lunch time.  He is Michael’s best friend but if things don’t change this poor thing won’t make it to my sons next birthday in one piece! 

 

A few girls had come over yesterday to discuss our girls conference (which is four weeks away might I add and I am beyond excited), and we all had a good laugh at the way he drug poor teddy around the house.  His “best friend” was trampled on more times than I can count and yet safely carried with him to nap time.  I couldn’t help but think that this situation could portray so many relationships in our own lives.  We work so hard to be the best we can be to those who know us least, but those who know us most more often than we’d like to admit get the worst of us.   It isn’t something that I am proud to admit but it is true.  I can keep pretty calm and composed while a person “gives me a piece of their mind” but heaven help my husband if he ever did so with the wrong “tone”.  We drag our relationships through the mud, throw them around like rag dolls and expect them to last forever.  Your friends can suck it up for a few years but after a while they will get tired of the roller coaster and get off the ride.  It’s time to work on us.  It’s time to do right and speak right.  It’s time to be the better person that you know you can be so that your relationships don’t end before they should.  It’s time.

 

It has been said that people come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime.  I have been made very aware of this over the past few years and I wasn’t so fond of it at first.  I was mad when friendships ended or faded out, and I was confused when some people stuck around.  I have come to the conclusion that no matter my expectations, I am thankful for all three types of people.  I am thankful that some people ran through my life like a sprint but helped me see things differently, I am thankful that some people only lasted through a season but helped me keep sane through difficult situations, and I am thankful for those who just keep coming around no matter the ups and downs.  And while I am thankful for those who are with me throw the thick and thin, I am also committed to growing into a better person not only for myself but also for these special few.  I want these lifetime people to in fact last a lifetime so it’s time I treated people the way I know I should, with a heart full of love and forgiveness.  Not that I haven’t done my best, just keeping that little teddy in mind.  And even if this little reminder is just for me, then I will focus on being a better person… for the sake of the teddy’s in my life!

 

Proverbs 17:9

Love prospers when a fault is forgiven,
but dwelling on it separates close friends.