A Day of Love
Valentine’s Day
We just celebrated Valentine’s Day. It’s a day that often drives me crazy because so much emphasis is on one day to express your love. The local roadside flower stand is busy. Cars are quickly pulling off the road to purchase flowers sitting in a bucket. While the gesture is appreciated, I can’t help but feel the purchase to show one’s love is hollow, with little effort exerted.
Love
When we show love it shouldn’t be one day of giving a card or flowers. Real love is so much more. Love takes time, nourishment, tenderness and strength. I feel loved when my husband reaches to hold my hand when going for a walk, changes the windshield wipers so I can safely drive, leaves a love note, wipes away my tears when I’ve received bad news, or a hundred other little things. That to me is love. Love nourished, cherished, and demonstrated. Love is not just a bouquet of flowers given on Feb 14th.
Marriage Like Christ and the Church
Ephesians 5:28-29 , “…husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. No one ever hated their own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body. “ Ephesians 5:33 gives us the other part of the relationship, “and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.”
The Wisdom of James
Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water. Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. James 3:12 – 4:12
What a very sad and disgraceful day in America, January 06,2021. Let us pray for restoration and healing throughout our land and end the bitter jealousy, lies, and selfish ambition so that we as a nation can draw our focus on what is good, and pure.
Gifts Unopened
Planning
It’s Christmas time. Albeit Christmas in a pandemic which means a season with new set of planning and execution challenges. Therefore, as a result of the pandemic, I met the challenge via online shopping and reimagining gifts. Little did I know that online shopping translates to hours of research and planning. No more impluse buys after walking past department store displays. This year more than ever I want the gifts I give to bring a smile, joy, and be used.
God’s Gift
Christmas is the time of year that reminds us that God has given us a gift; his Son, Jesus our Emmanuel. God had planned for a very long time to give us perfect gift and wants us to take; to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Yet how many will not accept this gift? If we do acknowledge the gift is it for a brief time? Too often we bring out God’s gift like a seasonal decoration and return to storage until next year. God gave us a second gift too, it is the Holy Spirit. God gave us these gifts so that we will take and use the gifts daily, depend and rely on these gifts, and be filled.
After the Wrapping
After Christmas morning when the gifts are unwrapped, I admit that too often I use a gift briefly, then forgotten, or I become busy and another project occupies my time. This Christmas, I pray that I truly use God’s gifts. Let me share His love, sing joyfully, pray without ceasing, and I will fill my heart first with the Holy Spirit. Afterall, what good is a gift if it is unused?