When walking through a valley in your life there are many things that are important to overcoming and not getting stuck in the pain.

One vital key to overcoming is to have a core of people around you that love you…just because.  You can face anything with encouraging truth, support, and love.

When you don’t have the strength to believe or see the future, it is others that are committed to you that carry you during these times.

In my own life, just knowing that Jon is committed to me and that Josiah adores me is anchoring for my soul.  But on another level, I have an extended spiritual family that fills in the gaps that my family alone can not fill.  We were created for relationships. When the web of spiritual family comes together to carry you during a dark time, you can overcome anything!  The strength and power that this brings to your life during weak times is not comparable to anything else in the world.

Relationships are what life is all about.  We need a core of people who will be there when times are good and when times are tough.  It is spiritual family that remains constant, even through all of their imperfections and mistakes.  No one is perfect.  You may not even talk to some people that much, but you know that they are around and love you without expectation.

In Ecclesiastes 4:10  it says, “For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!”

You never know when a hard time will strike your life.  If you are not rooted and grounded in the house of the Lord and committed to others, then it is more difficult to carry the load alone.  Our hearts get faint sometimes and that can set us up to be deceived if we don’t have others reminding us of the truth and encouraging us in who we really are.

“Those who are firmly planted in the house of the Lord will flourish.”

So today, are you connected to others?  Maybe it’s a small group at church or a group of people that you serve with.  Who are those that you are committed to walking with even when you don’t feel like it?  Life gets busy and it’s easy to say, “Us four, no more.”  Sometimes, it’s inconvenient to be committed to going to your small group or showing up for that outreach.  When a trying time comes, those people will be already established in your life to be able to love and support you.

“May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.” I Thessalonians 3:12

I thank God that we were committed to others when Joseph passed away.  It truly was spiritual family that carried us through the darkest days of our lives.  I don’t know where we would be without them.  We definitely wouldn’t be where we are now!