"Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality."
Love…really love…with genuine affection. Take delight in honoring others. There are no caveats to these commands. Am I doing them?
In my broken friendships, I must love. In my healthy friendships, I must love. In my every interaction with others, I must love. Love must never fail at my hands. But then, it never does, does it? It is my hands that fail. Not love. Never love. My hands must be the channel through which love gushes like a mighty river. Being a channel requires right-thinking. Right-thinking can only begin with right-perspective. Right-perspective begins with feasts and thanksgiving. My favorite author says,
"Only the Word is the answer to rightly reading the world. Because The Word has nail-scarred hands that cup our face close, wipe away the tears running down. The Word has eyes to look deep into our brimming ache, and whisper, 'I know. I know.' The passion on the page is a Person, and the lens I wear of the Word is not abstract idea but the eyes of the God-Man who came and knows the pain.”
Feast on the Word and the aptness to love with abandon, everyone I encounter will begin to grow. Give thanks upon thanks upon thanks and the realization of all that I've been given will quicken the flow of that Love-river from my hands. And Love is necessary, needed, as essential as oxygen.
We don't know! We just can't know the deep hurts, the dark blemished spots of suffering that the ones next to us, everywhere, carry with them. I can't fully understand the broken and distorted pain of my neighbor, of my Christ-siblings. But Love fully understands. And that is enough.
We don't know! We just can't know the deep hurts, the dark blemished spots of suffering that the ones next to us, everywhere, carry with them. I can't fully understand the broken and distorted pain of my neighbor, of my Christ-siblings. But Love fully understands. And that is enough.
I am discovering that it is thankfulness that really prepares my heart to do His will. So I need to begin with thanks, always with thanks. Upon the heels of thanks, I will feast on the Word, sopping up each morsel of delicious truth since it is this hearty Food that transforms me, truly. If I live thankful & Word-filled, then I will taste and see Love's goodness. And the pouring out on others becomes as important as my own filling.
Oct. 1-3 Gifts Orange: Pumpkins in the neighbor's yard, Acorn Squash Soup, Changing of the leaves of the trees
Oct. 2-3 Gifts Falling: Leaves of the trees; The season; My weight…slowly but surely
Oct. 3-A Gift caught, let go, midway: Caught a realization from study about anger & irritation; Letting go of a propensity to get angry & irritated; Midway in working through the heaviness in my mind
Oct. 4-3 Gifts Reaped: Happy mornings come from an attitude of resolve; Patience begets calm; A kind word turneth away wrath
Oct. 5-3 Gifts Returned: Returning to a state of trust; Returned my library books; Returning to the feet of Jesus for forgiveness, strength, peace, joy.
Oct. 6-3 Gifts Redeemed: I am! A really good coupon; freebees
Oct. 7-A Gift Baked, Stirred, Eaten: Cheese Souffle; Chili w/ Friends; The Body & the Blood
Oct. 8-3 Gifts Prayed For: Financial stability; Medication stability; Marital peace
Oct. 9-3 Gifts Praised For: For I am fearfully & wonderfully made…even if I don't swim as fast or as well as the athlete in the lane next to me; For Your sovereignty and mercy, separate but equal characteristics of a loving, just God; the husband & daughter I've been given…extraordinary blessings!
Oct. 10-3 Hard Eucharisteo: Laying down my dreams & plans; Opportunities to shut my mouth & guard my heart (and mind!); Praying for a friend...a Mother's choice that caused a rift
Oct. 11-3 Gifts of Change: Changing of the season; Kelly getting to change his phone; my changing mind & body
Oct. 12-A Gift Small, Smaller, Smallest: Small apartment = big love & great closeness; Smaller-growing waistline & thighs!; Smallest dose of meds works like a charm for our girl
Oct. 13-3 Gifts Read: 1000 Gifts; Feasting on the Word; statuses of friends' joys and lives
Oct. 14-3 Gifts Said: Joshua 1:8; John 14:21; Ephesians 4:1-3
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