Rejoicing in Relationships

   As He is every year, God was good to my family in 2013.  He has continued to provide health and purpose to my wife, my children, and me at home.  He has continued to provide clients for me to assist at work.  We know that He is present and in control when hardships come, but we thank Him for the continued blessing of a smooth road that He has allowed us to travel in recent years.  As I look back on 2013, though, I realize that He provided another blessing in bulk that required time for me to fully comprehend.  In 2013, God blessed me with relationships.
   I marvel at how God used me in the life of a man who was barely a familiar face to me at the beginning of 2013.  When we happened to cross paths in 2013, I found a brother broken in his faith and his marriage in need of God’s truth.  God spoke to me what He wanted my brother to hear, and I watched as God’s truth saved a marriage and turned a man back to his Creator.
   I stand in awe at how God used me in the life of a teen at church who embraced the idea of spending time with a mentor who wasn’t quite sure what it meant to be a mentor.  I watched a teen grow into a young man and was honored to be a part of God’s plan in his life.
   I am humbled at how God used me in the lives of my three children.  From my 6-year-old son speaking his desire to be a Christ-follower, to my 4-year-old son deciding that church wasn’t so bad after all (partially thanks to snack time, no doubt), to my 22-month-old daughter saying her first “Amen” after the dinner prayer, it has been a year where God has been at work in all of the hearts in my family.
   Finally, I am excited about how I took a step forward in my relationship with Christ by being baptized just after the New Year.  It was an honor and a commitment to stand before my fellow congregants and proclaim that I belong to Jesus.
   Many of us take the time each day to thank God for showering blessings on us too plentiful to count, but it is often the case in my life that I focus my thanks on material blessings like money, shelter and food.  A long time ago in a trouble-free place called Eden, God taught us that He did not design us to be alone.  In 2013, I was reminded that we can’t do God’s work effectively unless we have others to do it with.  He provided the experiences above and many more to give me purpose in His plan, and to give me a hint at what life was like in His perfect creation, and what it will be like when it is restored. Celebrate your relationships today, and remember that God put you in the lives of others for a reason.
Alan L. Spiegel, Jr.
McLario, Helm & Bertling, S.C.
N88 W16783 Main St.
Menomonee Falls, WI 53051-2890
(262) 251-4210