Sometimes I hear best from God while doing my early AM Saturday chores, while the rest of my family are still sleeping. This is what I heard on Christmas Eve morning in 2016 as I swept and mopped our kitchen and mudroom floor. It was my special "Christmas Present" from God! Regarding the endless ‘drama’ of certain of my loved ones He warned me,
"If you allow yourself to be entangled in it, you will be absolutely no use to Me.”
He then spoke about His priorities for my life vs. what my spouse wants.
“If she had her way with you, you would not be the person I want to you to be.”
I continued doing my chores, waiting expectantly for the next thing.
"You’ve got to get your love, your joy, your self-worth, your security, . . . . all of it . . . from Me. Because you need a steady supply of these things."
"Sad but true, other people can only give me a stop-n-go intermittent trickle of these things. That’s just not good enough."
"And you need a love based on who you are, not on how you perform."
"Yes! Yes! Yes! Conditional performance-based love is a starvation diet! I can never perform well enough for someone who loves me like that! Besides, if I have to continually earn it, it’s not love."
Then He spoke to me about certain people in my family.
"When you give them the power to make you feel belittled, unloved, unworthy, anxious, insecure . . . that’s a sure sign of idolatry. Why would you give them that sort of power in the first place? These things are far too precious to trust to anyone but Me."
"I didn’t ask to be first (in your life) for My sake, but for yours, to protect you. They’re just like you: no soundness inside, only brokenness. They grasp at you to get what only I can give. And when they don’t get it from you, they are disappointed and angry, as though you somehow failed them."
“I know. They think that I am the cause of their discontent and anger, when it’s really the emptiness of their own souls. . . . . Why don’t they just come to You?”
They can’t because they do not know Me. They only know about Me.