Billy

Prompt: Describe your significant other's most attractive quality (on the inside).

It's funny, because I'm the details person.  I'm the one that gets uber focused on something and can't let it go until it makes sense.  I'm the one that wants everything to line up, to be consistent and void of cognitive dissonance.

But when I think about Billy's most attractive quality, there's something that I know I can count on.  Billy points me to Jesus.

The Gospel of Jesus has taken a hold of his heart in amazing ways, and I get to witness it every day.  I get to watch the way he leads our small group through hard conversations.  I get to see when he impresses on our children the truth that nothing they do can change their standing before God.  Nothing.  Nothing good they do can earn God's pleasure.  Nothing bad they do can take it away.  God smiles at Jesus in them, and their actions do not affect their standing before God.

Sometimes... okay... most of the time, when I'm in the middle of my own mental and emotional turmoil, it's hard to hear Billy's Jesus talk.  It's hard to have him ask me to stop and think about what I'm not believing about the Gospel.  I tell him that I don't like to think of it that way.  I don't want to always look at my whining sessions as sin.  I just want to get it out of my system and move on.

But that doesn't deal with the real thing, and Billy knows it.  Getting things off my chest so I can feel better is a cop-out.  Something else will eventually come along that gets me all hot and bothered.  I mean, sure, just getting it out there releases some tension, but it doesn't deal with why things really bothered me in the first place.

But God uses Billy to show me that when I feel offended by something someone else said or did to me, it's typically because I was putting more stock in what they think of me than what God thinks of me.  In that moment, I'm not believing that God thinks I'm beautiful regardless of whether someone else understands or respects me.  When I fly off the handle with my kids, it's usually because I am not believing that God has given me everything I need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3-4), including patience. 

When I feel like a failure, it's because I've forgotten that I'm more than a conqueror in Christ (Romans 8:37)

When I feel impressed with myself, it's because I have forgotten that all my righteousness is as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). 

Billy spurs me on to keep the Word of God as my authority in life.  He shows me everyday that I need Jesus.

He reminds me that I am nothing without Jesus, but that with Jesus, I am beautiful royalty.  Without Him, I was a slave to sin, but in Him I am the righteousness of God.