Love.
God is Love. I am NOT Love. I was made out of His love. I have invited His Spirit to live inside me, meaning, I have Love. God is a loving God, giving me the choice to live in that Love or live out of my flesh, which is not Love.
So, I cannot truly love someone without God. I cannot truly love my children without God. I cannot truly love my husband without God. And so on...
Control.
What is control anyway? Fear of the unknown. Fear of change. Fear of being hurt. Wanting to control something or someone just creates worry, stress, anxiety. Over and over, Jesus tells us "Do not worry. Do not be afraid."
Often times I find myself justifying my ways of control as love. I'm sure that my Father chuckles a little bit to himself when I get frustrated at why my children keep doing things I have tried to control them not to do. Yes, control them, not discipline- it is different.
There are a lot of ways I try to control my children that would be justified in the world's eyes as "discipline". But I continue to hear the Lord whispering to me, "I want you to let go and let me love your children the way I can only love them." This means throwing off the ways of the world and finding the narrow path of our Father. I can only imagine what that would look like to truly Love my kids and my husband.
The only thing/person I have control of is me. I cannot control anyone or anything. Control is the enemy's lie, telling us that love can't do anything. But he is wrong, LOVE CAN DO ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING. Another way of putting it, kind of, is the only way to control is to love God and know Him.
We just had 3 weeks to stay at our friends, the Lockes, house in Strathmore, CA. They have 4 kids all close to our kids' ages and all of them are friends. My friend Emie and I took our last night together to pray for all of our children and our husbands. Over our friendship of almost 7 years, we have grown, changed and found more of God because we have chosen to do this. But in the last few weeks I have been reminded that there is so much more of God I need and want, not just for myself but for my husband, children and anyone else who is put in my life. It is a process, and a journey to Love.
The New Commandment: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. John 13:34-35
Love. This should look different from many others and may even feel lonely or misunderstood. Jesus told us we would even be hated because the way we Love. Are we ready?
1 comment:
This is Jesus only commandment love God, love your neighbor as you love yourself. He did not give us a list of any other commandments.
That must mean that it is of the highest priority.
It is easy to say but hard to act out.
love,
Dad
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