Matthew 22:37-39 NASB And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
One week we worked on memorizing the above verse. We want to live out what we believe, so some days I ask M what he can do to show love today. I do it at random times throughout the day like while getting ready for the day or at meals or on walks.
Here are some of the things he's thought of and done. Sometimes I give him a little guidance and this is during Covid-19 where we are staying in our home A LOT. We have to get creative when thinking of things to do.
Text a photo to a friend
Video call a family member
Chalk message on neighbor friend's sidewalk (especially if it's their birthday)
Make and mail a card to a friend or family member
Wave to and chat with neighbors
Help with chores (besides everyday ones)
Pick up garbage on walks
Make a painting and drop it off at a neighbor friend's house (Covid-19 helped us to take more walks so we see and meet more neighbors, another post on that later)
Send gifts to friends
Put out gifts/notes for the garbage workers (Miles loves garbage trucks and would follow them all day if allowed)
As I've mentioned in a previous post, as a family we've started planning each week things we can do to love better. As you can see in the image below, our family is focused on loving God first and most and out of that comes love for our family, our neighbors, and our world. Each weekend we fill in the sections with new ideas. Sometimes we keep some things from the previous week in there if we didn't feel successful with them yet. I'll go into more detail about what we've put in each section in future posts. Hopefully, my struggle to come up with ideas can make it easier for you. Copy any ideas you want! Subscribe below if you'd like to know when I post more relating to this topic.
Manna:
Make a decision to love better with your family. Find a way that works for your family to keep you motivated and accountable in "loving God with passion and loving people on purpose" (Raising Passionate Jesus Followers by Phil Comer)
My husband and I have been convicted to do more, to do something. On "doing something", I recommend the book, You and Me Forever by Francis Chan. This is a marriage book, but not really. God tells us to start with loving Him. Spend time in the Word and have conversations/prayers with Him. All. The. Time. By loving His people we love God. Everyone is an image-bearer. Everyone is worthy of love.
What does that love look like? Loving is actively noticing how you can care for those around you and in the world. It's imagining what you would do if Jesus was in the room. You never have to search too far to find ways to love. The most important thing is to just do it, not just think or talk about it. Always strive to love more and better. There's always more that can be done. Look around. Don't count anything as too small of an act. God sees all. If we try but the love doesn't seem to be received or noticed, God sees our intention. Tomorrow's a new day and a new day to love some more. Any amount of loving grows us and is good for our soul. The more I do it, the more it becomes second nature. In the beginning, I had to actively remind myself to ask M how he can show love, but now it's becoming a natural part of my vocabulary.
Now to the struggle. More times than I'd like to admit it has been hard for us to think of new ways to love others, even in simple ways. Love is sacrificial. I'm still searching for how to love in a truly sacrificial way like Jesus. One time I wrote on our "Love Better" circles that I wanted to text prayers to 3 friends. I had felt lacking in the friend arena several days previously so I felt the need to connect with them in this way, but honestly, I didn't want to do it. Life felt kind of heavy at that time and it was easier to just keep facing in instead of out towards others. I ended up sending the texts because I had had the accountability of it being written down. With that small sacrifice came great reward for me and the receivers. I recently told M that it feels good to do kind things. It feels nice to live out what I tell him in this one small way. But we (my husband and I) feel the Holy Spirit convicting us that it's not enough. We look around at our privilege, comfort, and endless possessions, and we wonder, "This can't be right." When anything we do is put up next to what Jesus did... GEEZ. we are NOT sacrificing ANYTHING. How do we truly love sacrificially?
Lord,
May we begin to understand what Your Love is.
May we be filled with Your Love so that can overflow to others.
May we honor You above all else. Don't let society morph our minds into believing lies about what it looks like to be loved well.
Fill our minds with ways to love better.
Give us and our children a heart for and a desire to love, even when it seems hard or inconvenient.
Amen.