I have this incredible friend that has started a challenge for herself of taking 60 minutes a day to exercise, for 60 days! She is calling it 60 for 60 and blogging about her experience. As I struggled this weekend with a relationship I realized I had a lot of work cut out for myself to change my way of thinking and my attitude toward this individual. I decided a good start would be to take a few minutes and pray for her. My hope is that by praying for her my feelings will shift from resentment and anger to forgiveness and understanding. When I shared this with my dear friend her response was, "Blog about it!". My hope is that through this blog I will have others stumble upon it and provide insight into difficult relationships and also hear how prayer influences and changes. And just maybe I can inspire others to work on relationships in a healthy loving way. My plan is to pray for N for a few minutes each day for the next 2 months, documenting my progress as well as other helpful material I discover during this time.
Many years ago I clipped a small article from our bulletin about prayer and I have it taped to my bedroom mirror for a reminder. It fits perfectly with my adventure. "A United Methodist minister, Dick Wills, advises prayer as a response to anything that irritates, frustrates, or angers. The process of prayer begins with a request for God's peace and comfort to bless you. Then the prayer becomes a request for patience and understanding about the issue that angers you. The final step is to pray for the faith and inspiration to affect an outcome that will bring honor to anyone involved in the issue...especially bring honor to God."
Now a quick peek into my complicated relationship and why it is so important for me to find an understanding, seek forgiveness and establish a positive connection. I am in a committed relationship of 5 years to a wonderful, loving man (D). He has a daughter (N) that is a young adult, and I have 2 teenagers (K and A) from a marriage that ended 7 years ago. I have struggled over the years to establish a relationship with N, having few ups and many downs. I understand that this can be a difficult dynamic and have spent a great deal of time reading about "bonus families" or step families to gain insight (we are not married and do not live together). N lives away from home and is trying to juggle part time school and part time work. She has had many struggles in life and depends a great deal on her dad for support. As the years have progressed I am ashamed to say I have had a growing feeling of resentment and increased frustration by the struggles she is having and the impact it naturally causes on her dad and my relationship.
My hope and prayer is that I am able to develop a respectful, honest, and positive relationship with N. She is a good person at heart that has been dealing with many struggles and wants to be successful in life, in her relationships and a career. And she so deserves that.
