Our Covenant

Over the past couple of weeks, our Forge class has had the opportunity to put together a covenant, complete with mission statement, and guidelines that will help us make the most of our time together, over the next 6 months.  Through that process, I learned so much about people and interacting with individuals, that will prove of immeasurable worth for the rest of my life.  Every single person is an individual, complete with their own thoughts, theories, opinions, and experiences, derived from their past, their culture, and their theology.  Thinking anything less than that would cause me to judge the other person and set myself up in an authoritative position over them.  Working with people means that I not only get along with people, but that I understand them, where they are coming from and consider them more important than myself.  For this project of making a covenant, we had to be unanimous on every topic, which is easier said than actually done.  The first part of the project was to come up with a mission statement.  We came to the conclusion that it would be Romans 12:10, "Be devoted to one another in brotherly love, honor one another above ourself."  I don't know if we realize what we signed up for, but I know that God is going to work in huge ways through this covenant.  We then went on to define our relationship to media, tv, relationships, housekeeping, amongst other things.  Once we ratified the covenant two weeks ago, our relationship to one another became so much more important and on our mind, because we began following the guidelines we set forth, not out of a "duty" to preform, but out of wanting to be devoted, loving, and honoring to our brothers and sisters here.  It is a good exercise to remind each of us that we are in a "new" covenant with Christ, one ratified by the shedding of Christ's blood on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins.  Through this project and through being with each other daily, we are learning what it means to be in a Christian Community with each other, something I am learning to love more and more every day!!!