Donald Miller --Surviving Conflict

Today I received a blog from Donald Miller -- Catherine got me started on him and I like what I read--getting his blog every day. There was one yesterday on keys for a team to survive conflict and I wondered if our family could ever be put back to one piece. It is a shambles and such a terrible legacy for us to live for Mama Cooper.

He gives us points to do.

No. l -- Invite God into the conflict. Structured, daily prayer will give people a sense of hope. Bring God into the conflict and trust that He is there with you.

Here is what I have done: I have called up the basic beliefs and I still believe every one of them. God is one God, Christ is part of the Holy Trinity, the Bible is the Revelation of God. Christ was born of Mary --he died and rose from the dead. I believe in the everlasting life. I trust that he is a personal God (immanent) as well as a God of everything (transcendent).

Do I think that God is with me? yes Do I think that God cares about this situation? yes

So I have invited Betty Ann, Catherine and Sara into the No. l and asked them to join with me in a structured daily prayer and blog. Call upon his name and ask him to bless us as a family with healing.

My special prayers:

Julia and her health-physical and mental; Joker is killing her with his dementia and she cannot think that this is the way Mama intended it to be; Harry is dying and she will have to cope with this.

Betty and her health--physical and mental; She has lost Warren and Lynn and somewhere in her psyche I know that she is wandering around lost because she cannot cope with trying to patch things up with her sisters, Rose Marie, me and Jennie. It is easier for her to pull further away than it is to reach out.

I will pray for Betty Ann and her children as they deal with Emmy's death, for Catherine as she finds "her" road and for Sara as she deals with empty nest and the death of her friend, Todd.

Rule 2. Commit to having patience. It's going to get tough and nobody is going to get what they want out of the situation, so settle in and have some patience.

think about Rule 2 in your specific situation. Commit to having patience but don't commit to giving up entirely and saying that nothing will ever change. It has to change or we have to admit that God is not capable of dealing with the Cooper family but he can make the world!

I invite God into the conflict.