Everybody's Normal till you get to know them

I picked up this book while at the Cedar Park library the other day. I had no idea what it was about, but really like John Ortberg and knew I could use some help with building community in my life.

Ouch. That's my synopsis of the book so far. I now know why so many of my past friendship have failed and where I can grow.

When I was growing up, I did not have examples of healthy friendships. We spent a lot of great time with family, but I never knew what it looked like to cultivate a deep relationship. Even now I am in awe that Phil and I have been married seven years and are as best of friends as we are.

I'm only on chapter 3, but I can say I honestly believed everyone else was normal in relationships but me. This book has taught me that we all have things about ourselves we don't like, try to hide, and prevent us in some way of building deep community with new and old friends. I had also never pondered the story of Adam the way Ortberg details it, of God and Adam being in perfect, complete harmony in the Garden and yet because Adam was not in community with another human, he was "alone" as God called him, and God said that wasn't good. He points out that we were made for community and we all have a people void that even God won't fill. He leaves us room to fill each other up. Our deepest hunger is for authentic, deep community with God and people. Not just to be friendly people, but to have genuine friendships. This may sound simple, but it blew me away.

I'm off to watch Leap Year, I hope it's good. I'll get some cross stitching done either way. Ethan was diagnosed with pink eye this afternoon, so we'll be quarantined at home through the weekend. On other news...my sewing machine gave out on me a few weeks ago, so Phil bought me a new one as an early birthday present. I'll post pictures tomorrow. I hope you have a great Friday night!