How is Your Love Life?

"For this is the message you have heard from the beginning:  You should love one another." I John 3:11

 

These days, people, groups and corporations like to adopt mission statements.   These statements tell the world what the organization is about.  They reflect the ultimate goal of the person or group adopting the  mission statement.  In my opinion, if  you were to boil the Bible down to one mission statement it would be "Love God; love people."   I know, I know, that is overly simplistic but I still feel it encapsulates the heart of the message and is the basis for most all (if not all) the commandments.

Loving God is a given.  He loved us first. He sent his son to die for us. He makes provision for us, directs and guides over us.   In many ways, loving God comes easy.  But the Lord never intended for us to stop there.   He wants us to move on to the point that we love what he loves- other human beings. 

Blended families know that if you are truly going  to love your mate, you will have to love their children.  Healthy marriage and family cannot be built when the two parents entering a new marriage, do not  first establish a relationship with their intended's children.  Dysfunction abounds in relationships where this is not the case. 

But in a broader sense,  it is still true. Love me?  Love my children.  I don't hang out with anyone that does not love- or at least like- my children.  They don't have to establish a close bond to them, but they cannot despise them!  Do you understand what I am saying?  They are my heartbeat, the apple of my eye.  My family comes first in my life and all other relationships  spring forth from that starting point.

I cannot help but feel that Daddy-God is much the same way.  He love me. He wants what is best for me.  He has big plans for me. But he feels the same way about you. And the people in other churches and denominations.  But it is bigger.  He feels the same way about serial killers, child molesters and terrorists.  Hard to swallow, but true.  Each human being is created in the image of God (their Father) with a purpose and destiny that is all about having a relationship with him. So if God is going  to reign over my heart,  that will be a guiding force in my life.  We must love one another.  I must love other people.

So what does this "God-kind" of love look like?  It  means I value other people's feelings, treat them with respect, consider their needs, have compassion for their hurt and joy for their success.   It means it cannot only be about me.  I have to open my eyes and see the world Jesus died for.

A couple of  days ago, I was slammed with things that I needed to get done.  Pressing things.  Important things.  I had a lot to do and a short time in which to get it done.  Most of it was about taking care of  others and church stuff.  (Enough to make me feel a bit smug about the "importance" of what I was doing.)  So as I left my  buggy at Wal-Mart on the sidewalk, I told myself several things: 
"I am late for a party.  I've got to hurry. and my kid needs me."  In addition, there were countless other buggies parked there as well.  But as I left my last bag in the car, I had this nagging conviction that I just could not leave it there.   Then the Lord spoke to my heart, if you leave it there you are not  walking in love but selfishness. To leave it there is to say that what I had going on was more important  than the rules.  It was more important than blocking a pathway for a little old lady with an unsteady gate.  It was more important than the cars which could be potentially be rammed if a good wind caught the buggy and propelled it across the parking lot.   It was more important than the poor guy (or girl) whose job it is to gather the buggies and whose life is made more difficult when they have to wander all over the parking lot collecting buggies that were haphazardly parked.  Ouch!  So I took the extra "precious" thirty seconds of my life and made it about someone else.   A very small sacrifice, but don't we find this kind of thing to be the hardest?

Loving will always involve sacrifice because when we establish priorities, one person comes out ahead and the other, behind. Are your words and actions in keeping in line with love?  Do you play games (that bore you) with your children because you love them?  Do you read the same book over and over again because they love it? Do you listen to the elderly man tell about his "war days" with interest and respect even when it is the hundredth time he has told it?

It is all about love. Are you doing it?  Are you showing it?  Love is an action word.  Today, try to put the verb of love to work in your interactions.

Lord, forgive me of selfishness and self-centered thinking.   Help me to love as you love.  In Jesus' Name.  Amen.

 Sherri