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By Precarious Yates

“Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.” Matthew 5:7

Sometimes God puts people in our lives that test us right down to the very core of who we are. They are people we have to forgive over and over and over and over again. She gets right under your skin. He pushes every button you knew you had and even some you didn’t think you had. She makes you feel like you’re walking on eggshells all the time.

When the Lord puts someone like that in your life, rejoice. First of all, He trusts you with this person. Second of all, there is some change in this person’s life that might not happen if he or she doesn’t have that encounter with you. What a privilege to partner with the Lord in that way! And third of all, there might be something the Lord wants to change in your life, and that change wouldn’t have happened without said person to sharpen you like iron sharpens iron.

This isn’t to say there aren’t boundaries. There need to be healthy boundaries in relationships. But don’t use the excuse of boundaries to shoo away someone that the Lord wants you to have in your life. Ask Him to show you His purpose for this person’s presence in your life.

More than that, you can ask Him how He views this person. While he or she may get under our skin, the Lord knit this person together in their mother’s womb and He has plans for their life. Somehow or other, you fit into that plan!

Pray for the person daily. Ask the Lord to show you new and unique ways to love this person. You may even find that this person doesn’t get under your skin as much anymore, or that you don’t have as many buttons that can be pushed as you used to have.

And when we come to the very edge of our abilities, we can cry out to the Lord. Then He begins to love THROUGH us, and that’s a beautiful and lasting thing indeed.

In the book UnEmbraceable, we learn the story of Tamar and all the reasons why she walked around like a stem of thorns with hardly a rose. Steadfast love causes a turnaround, but not without a great deal of hurt, and quite a few of her Christian friends asking “WHY, ME, GOD? WHY ME?!!” In the end, Tamar, the one who is unembraceable, isn’t the only one who changes.

Precarious Yates has lived in 8 different states of the Union and 3 different countries, but currently lives in Texas with her husband, her daughter and their big dogs. When she’s not writing, she enjoys music, teaching, playing on jungle gyms with her daughter, praying and reading.