Daily Devotion Thursday November 18

Two Halves Don’t’ Make a Whole 
My husband and I do premarital counseling. When we were engaged, author and speaker Florence Littauer had dinner with us. She told us that the very things that attracted us to one another would be the very things that could drive us apart in years to come. You see, my husband and I have opposite strengths and lots of personality differences. Florence was telling us how we would make a great team TOGETHER. My strengths and his strengths, added together, made a stronger more diversified marriage. She did warn us also that this very same issue could draw us apart and into division. She encouraged us to let our differences be our unifying place and not our dividing place. 
We must remind ourselves that each part of a physical body has a different strength and purpose. The hand cannot be an eye. An eye cannot be a foot. But all are needed to complete the purposes for the entire body. 1 Corinthians 12:21 says that the hand must not say to the foot “I want to be a foot”. It should just be the hand and never discount the need of the foot. Might I say that it should be the best hand that it can be? Through the differences, the whole health of each part of the body can be strong. 
In the relationship of marriage, my husband brings his strengths, personality, and gifts. I bring my own. The wholeness of my “self” adds rich value to our marriage. I cannot come as a “half” because two halves don’t make a whole. Two wholes make for wholeness. We cannot complete each other but we can contribute our healthy value to each other. If I sought my wholeness in my husband, I would still be empty because he cannot fill my “God-shaped” void for my unique purposes and my own wholeness. 
Do you need to take some time away to invest in your health and your wholeness? I am constantly offering events to help others find their wholeness and purpose. I believe that we all love our neighbors better when we love ourselves best and live from the overflow of peace, passion, and purpose.
From the YouVersion Bible devotional “Loving Yourself so You can Love Others Well” by Roxanne Parks.  Printed with author’s permission.  
Find more of her work at http://www.roxanneparks.com/home.html