Family...

Family is, well, complicated to say the least. Why? Because the people we LOVE the most have the power to hurt us the deepest. Family members can push our buttons like no one else can. And with day-to-day annoyances, misunderstandings, hurts and frustration going on while living in close proximity to each other, let's face it, some days it's hard to love our families. Especially the way Jesus wants us to.

"My command is this," he says, "love each other in the same way I have loved you." (John 15:12-13)

That's so tough to do! Especially when some of our family members are teens or young adults, and they are walking all over our boundaries. Do you ever get tempted to take scripture out of context and twist it to suit your own emotions? I know I do. How about Luke 14:26? "If anyone comes to me and does NOT hate his father and mother, his wife and CHILDREN, his brothers and sisters...he cannot be my disciple..." There you go. If we take Christ's words out of context, we can justify hating those annoying little buggers. (Though that wasn't really what he meant; he was talking in a broader sense about being wiling to leave everything - and everyone behind - to follow him). But back to feeling hate. Hate's easy. It just pops up and rears it's ugly head as soon as we let our guard down.

Love, on the other hand, that takes a lot of work!



In The Necessary Enemy, Katherine Anne Porter points out that "Love must be learned, and learned again and again; there is no end to it. Hate needs no instruction, but waits only to be provoked."

So how can we practice love? Here's the famous recipe according to 1 Corinthians 13 (The Message)

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

Well, that's it I guess. Love never gives up, especially on family...(even though they are a pain in our butts!) Lord, your word promises that all things are possible in your strength. Please help me to not only love my family, but to be loving towards them in my thoughts, words and actions as well. Amen