M.A.S.H.

One hot Australian summer night this past March, my friend Sarah and I sat around a table filling out countless M.A.S.H. games on scratch paper for our girlfriends. One by one as a girl said "stop" to the line markings; we would ordain marriages, sell homes, deliver babies, give out pets, and decide the future of our friends. We sat there getting our friends hopes up or ruining dreams. It was all fun and games until you were the girl stuck married to Santa Clause, with 9 kids, a pet giraffe, driving a clown car and living in an Apartment.

The other night at watershed Bekah had us play M.A.S.H., this time it was a little nicer...we got to choose the potential husbands, number of kids, pet, cars, and then prayed we would land with the Mansion or House.

Bekah had us start the night with an elementary game, to display the not so elementary danger of unrealistic/unreachable expectations we set on relationships. The expectations we set on this game are the same expectation we set on how we approach dating/marriage relationships. We cannot set expectations too high on any human relationship, for one reason...we are humans! We often think if we could just date this guy or marry that guy we would have a this fairy tale perfect life. Humans are broken and imperfect, therefore making every human relationship broken and imperfect. The only truly fulfilling, one-sided perfect, relationship we can have on this earth is with the Creator of the universe. Therefore, our perfect husband, perfect best friend, or perfect life will always fall short of our expectations. So... lets lose the expectations! It is not fair to the other person to have such high expectations on them anyways, it is too much pressure for someone to constantly be living under.

Godly relationships flourish when we realize that no one is perfect, including ourselves. When you are willing to love someone else without conditions...keeping in mind that they are human and will mess up here and there...it is in the "mess-ups", when our unconditional love for them is tested. How will we react when the other person does not meet our ridiculous expectations? Will we kick 'em to the curb!? Mmm no...maybe we should learn to admit what we might have done to cause the situation, learn to forgive and move on... in love with out conditions.

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
Romans 12.9-12

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
1 John 3:16

This song came on when I was writing...

I'm convinced this song will never get old and
that I will always need to hear it as a reminder,
thanks Bethany Dillon!