Scripture of the Day: Matthew 22:37-40
37 ...Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
In our house right now we are working on the "love your neighbor as yourself" commandment. The "Golden rule" is hard to teach to an almost 4 year old! Almost daily we have to have a talk that goes something like this: "if you want us to be nice to you, you have to be nice to us." I am not sure this is fantastic parenting, but the bottom line is that if our son whines and cries and is mean, not only does he NOT get what he wants...but he gets one (or two) crabby parents and some time in his room. Whereas, if he is nice and pleasant and obeys we are much happier as a family! I think conceptually, this is one of the hardest things we have had to teach our son. I know at his age, his world revolves around himself so it is hard to really focus on how what he does affects other people.
This whole thing is making me wonder how God feels...how he must shake his head at his billions of children down here and just mutter "oh...don't they understand how much easier it would be if they all loved each other like they want to be loved?!" But no matter how much head shaking he does, he doesn't give up on us! He gives us doses of grace daily. And he tries to teach us how to give that grace to others. When we look up to his example, it doesn't seem so hard...but it is!
We have to view each day with our children (or you can replace children with whatever in your life seems most frustrating - spouse, co-worker, family member, friend, etc), as a chance to show God's love and we need to not be afraid to ask him for help. And patience :) It also helps us to remember that no matter how many times we want to throw our hands up and scream - he has to deal with WAY more unruly people than we will ever have to. He doesn't ever throw in the towel, instead he just loves us. That is our job as well - love those around us - even when we don't want to!
37 ...Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
In our house right now we are working on the "love your neighbor as yourself" commandment. The "Golden rule" is hard to teach to an almost 4 year old! Almost daily we have to have a talk that goes something like this: "if you want us to be nice to you, you have to be nice to us." I am not sure this is fantastic parenting, but the bottom line is that if our son whines and cries and is mean, not only does he NOT get what he wants...but he gets one (or two) crabby parents and some time in his room. Whereas, if he is nice and pleasant and obeys we are much happier as a family! I think conceptually, this is one of the hardest things we have had to teach our son. I know at his age, his world revolves around himself so it is hard to really focus on how what he does affects other people.
This whole thing is making me wonder how God feels...how he must shake his head at his billions of children down here and just mutter "oh...don't they understand how much easier it would be if they all loved each other like they want to be loved?!" But no matter how much head shaking he does, he doesn't give up on us! He gives us doses of grace daily. And he tries to teach us how to give that grace to others. When we look up to his example, it doesn't seem so hard...but it is!
We have to view each day with our children (or you can replace children with whatever in your life seems most frustrating - spouse, co-worker, family member, friend, etc), as a chance to show God's love and we need to not be afraid to ask him for help. And patience :) It also helps us to remember that no matter how many times we want to throw our hands up and scream - he has to deal with WAY more unruly people than we will ever have to. He doesn't ever throw in the towel, instead he just loves us. That is our job as well - love those around us - even when we don't want to!
Comments
Post a Comment