Let’s Thirst for One Another

Thirst

desire, need, passion, appetite, yearning, yen, longing, lust, appetite, hunger, keenness

We always hoped that our kids would find a life partner who would thirst for them. That they would not only be cherished but that they would have a connection that brought them both together with such an intense bond of love and longing that they actually thirst for one another. Our thirst is not only contained to our romantic love. As parents, we thirst for time with our kids and grandkids. In fact, we will drop everything when we get the chance to just be with family. Heck, Ron took a train from New Mexico to Washington state to babysit for a week when Cam and Brit called. We humans thirst for relationships and community. 

There is a little example of thirst in a story about a dog and a husband. If you lock your dog and your husband in the trunk of your car and come back a few minutes later, only your dog will be excited to see you. Your husband may be thirsty but it won’t be for time with you. However, your dog will forgive you, wag his tail and leap into your arms. When there is a disconnect with someone we love it can make us even more thirsty for time with them. We may try to pester them or persuade them that we are sorry and need their forgiveness when what they need from us is time. Time to settle and perhaps even to digest the wrong and remember the good. What we can’t do is make our thirst to right the situation a larger separation than the initial disconnect. But human nature doesn’t want to let it sit and give it time. We are a people of instant gratification and resolution. If we are honest that this need to speed up the process is about us more than it is about the other person we will see that this is not a time for selfishness but a time for patient prayer over our circumstance. Trust takes time to rebuild. Thirst takes time to rekindle. Although I am yearning with a deep desire to make things right we need to trust that this relationship will be even stronger when we wait on God’s timing. 

You would think we would learn these lessons after a lifetime of situations. When Ron and I came to a hurtful place in our relationship and separated, it took six long years to get back together. We didn’t arrive back at the place we started. God brought a new creation, a new healthy relationship that has been completely healed. We couldn’t imagine it would take such a long journey to get each other back better than ever before. But it did. Ours is my most favorite love story and it took walking through our heartbreaks to get to where our thirst for each other is today. 

So why do we lack patience and try to snatch back control of broken relationships rather than waiting on His timing, His healing of hearts? Because in the midst of our separation we are thirsting for resolution and connection. We are not trusting that it can be healed and better than ever before. Patience is not easy. Letting go of control is not easy. Separation from those we love is not easy. Finally coming back to better than before is worth living with not easy. Lift our hands, bend our knees and trust. No one ever said it was easy but when our thirst is quenched with a relationship with someone we love it is well worth the wait.

All of our children have life partners that thirst for them. They enjoy wonderful moments together in the busyness of life. It is our hearts desire realized that our children and those they love are so connected. That my Ronnie B. Still called me and tells me to look outside at a sunset or just sits beside me to hold my hand makes me the luckiest lady in the world. Here’s to trusting for healing in all our relationships and continuing to thirst for those we cherish.

In Him,

Joyful

2-2-20