Those Who Love You

Those who love you need you in so many different ways, in every area of their lives in which you play a role.
How are you needed?
Your parents need you as a daughter, as a support, as a source of joy. Your siblings need you as a sister, a correspondent, and a partner in family matters.
Your best friend needs you as a listener, as a fun-mate, as a burden sharer, as an encourager and helper.
If you are married, your husband needs you as a loving wife. He may also need to as a tennis partner, bill payer, confidante, and secret keeper. Your children need you as a mother, as a teacher, as a guide, as a counselor.
Your church family needs you as a spiritual light, a fellow traveler along the Way, a prayer partner, a spring of hope and faith. And all the other people with whom you have relationships need you in the distinctive roles you fill in their lives.
God needs you too. He endowed you with special abilities to serve in his church and his world. Perhaps he gave you the gift of hearing the soulful cries of his hurting children. Maybe he gave you eyes of compassion that see the desperation in the faces of abused women and children and the sensitive heart that calls you to help them. He may have blessed you with a can-do spirit that inspires others to get involved in projects that look impossible. Or perhaps he infused you with overflowing joy that splashes onto anyone who comes near and urges them onward and upward.
Whatever gifts and abilities he gave you, he needs you to be at work in his world and his kingdom. No one else can do what he designed you for in the same way you can.
So many people need you in so many ways, and no one can take your place. No one else can play your role. No one else knows your lines. You are uniquely created to fit in the special you-shaped space God formed in his world.