 In Galatians 5:22-23 the first fruit of the spirit listed is love. There seems to be infinite ways to study and discuss the word “love” as it appears throughout scripture in many forms. This study focuses on Jesus’ response which so clearly tells to focus our love into three things: God, others, and ourselves.
In Matthew 22:36-40, Jesus is asked, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.”
0 Comments
 There are few things that take your breath more than seeing your name on a stone. The arrival of Tall Boyfriend’s headstone was delayed by the quarantine and I was none too sad about that. I had dreaded the day that I had to stand and see, written in stone, not only his name but my own name as a reminder of loss and the finality of life. I am not one to enjoy thinking about the fact that we age, get sick, and eventually leave this world. I typically live in the moment and soak up every piece of it… or so I thought.
 The concept of the power of prayer is something in my life that has developed over time. I remember so many times as a child in church hearing prayer requests, praise reports, and modern day miracles. Fast forward many years later my prayer life held a whole new meaning when I struggled with one miscarriage after another. I truly learned what it was like to pray circles around and truly turn circumstances over to God.
 Easter is by far my favorite holiday. Easter is a Christian holiday that celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. I have amazing memories associated with this day thanks to the freedom we have always had in America. As a child, I remember many Easter egg hunts. From as far back as I remember there are sunrise services that I never missed. Until early adulthood, those involved not just the scripture and early morning message but also connection with a church family over friendly yet always competitive pancake versus waffle wars.
 Have you ever been trying to stream a movie and the poor signal resulted in a long pause while the content downloaded? You may have seen a short explanation on the screen “Buffering, please wait while your content loads.” If you are of a certain age, you will also remember the days of dial up internet and trying to download a song only to have “buffering” take hours. Buffering in this sense is simply the time it takes for the content to download to the device and prepare it to be seen. It is a pause on the situation and the viewer is forced to sit and wait. Due to increased use of the internet and cell signal during the current situation, we all may be experiencing more “buffering” than we were used to.
 After many discussions, we decided to team up to post some encouraging words from Balance. Reflecting back to our New Year's post, we shared the statistic that 1 in 3 people report not having engaged with others on a social level more than once in the past month. The HRSA has published concerns labeling the “loneliness epidemic” detrimental to health resulting in higher mortality rate with an increase in disease and stroke.
 There have been days lately that no matter how much I have slept I am still tired. I could take a daily nap even though that hasn’t been something I have done since before my oldest was born. After 10 years of parenting I am finally giving myself permission to be still. Is it possible that consistently giving myself permission has opened some kind of a door to craving rest and quiet even more?
I think so!  I began my Facebook post one year ago today with these words: “I’ve debated on posting this and truly can’t say whether I’m content posting or not posting.” Then I asked for prayer as we were saying our goodbyes to Bill. Husband. Father. Son. Brother. Uncle. Friend. Nephew. Cousin… my Tall Boyfriend.
 These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever. Jude 1:12-13 (NIV)
 This devotion started something like this…
Heather: “Even Jesus asked for help, Kim.” Kim: “He didn’t say LEAVE either, Heather.” Just being transparent here… Kim struggles with physically asking for help and wants to do everything herself. Heather struggles with allowing others to support her during weak emotional breakdowns and often says “LEAVE”. Neither of these are healthy choices. We are diving in today to see what scripture says about responding when “stuff happens”. There are days and moments that leave us feeling depleted, tired, and devastated. There are the small things that continue to hit wave after wave until you are depleted. Vacuum cleaners break. Tires go flat. Gas runs out. Pools collapse. Deer get hit. Flu. Kids disobey and have meltdowns. Houses get dirty. These seemingly little things can add up leaving us asking “Really God?” |
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed