Episode 447

TODAY’S READING:

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly since love covers a multitude of sins.

1 Peter 4:8

 

Loving others is hard. Later this week, we are going to pray over loving those that hurt us, but today I wanted to talk about the overall choice to love. Sometimes others don’t hurt us, but it doesn’t make it any less hard.

 

It’s hard to love someone when they are being selfish or hard-headed. It’s hard to love someone when you come home from a long day of work, and the dishes aren’t done, and the trash hasn’t been taken out. It’s hard to love someone when you’re the friend that always calls to check-in, but on the days you have it bad, no one phones a friend.

 

Loving is hard.

 

So why do we do it? And how do we do it best?

 

Well, we do it because, like we mentioned yesterday, it is the strongest power ever. Stronger than the MCU infinity gauntlet. Stronger than any other force. We also learn today that is covers a multitude of sins.

 

But the real question we need to ask our selves is how does my friend, spouse, loved one receive love? We all have different love languages, and in my short 28 years, I have come to realize that we all express love and receive love very differently. So, where quality time may be your best friend’s ultimate love language, it doesn’t matter how many gifts you buy her. She will never feel your appreciation.

 

In order to choose to love the ones closest to us, I hope we make two decisions. The first is to be active, present, and vulnerable when connecting. Try and view them through the lens of grace we spoke about. The second is to pay attention to their love language and to do a better job of loving the person in their preferred language.

 

PRAYER

Father God, you made us all different. We all have our love languages, but we all have to make the choice to love. So today, we make the choice to love those around us. We make a choice to be present and active. We make a choice to love one another earnestly. We also make it a point to get to know our friends, family, and significant others in the way they feel love most. We know we are more like Jesus when we choose to love despite how hard it is in the moment. We love you, Lord, and we ask that you take care of us today. It is in your Holy Name that we pray, AMEN!