Looking Like Love

I remember a moment in our move to the farm when I had to hit the pause button on what I called "progress" - the ability to move forward in tearing apart a house while transitioning between two different locations while living part-time with in-laws and part-time with my sister's family while running a home business and a corporate career while home-schooling two teenagers while trying to keep it all together. We were all scattered - mentally and physically. We were all doing the best we could. And we were all tested in our relationships with one another. The "pause button" moment to which I am referring, specifically, included a discussion/argument between my children - two teenagers who were at odds with each other as well as within themselves about how to handle a certain situation. We hadn't spent much time together over the months leading up to that moment and the last thing I wanted was to have the little time we had together to be spent fighting. So I just had to call a time-out. And a family meeting. But before we met, I had to pray...

Pray that I, myself, wouldn't end up lecturing or yelling or scolding them... doing the very thing to them that they were doing to one another. Pray that I would find words not my own that would speak to how to handle this moment. I was praying for "wisdom that comes from above" as mentioned by James and that we would keep the main thing the main thing... our relationship with and love for Jesus and for one another. And the words (not my own) that came to me were these...

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." - John 13:34-35

We talked about what it was to love someone when you didn't agree on something. We talked about what love looked like when you didn't feel "loving". We talked about how to keep the relationship more important than being "right" and we had to admit that, in those days, we were looking less than loving toward each other. I believe with all my heart that the enemy - the one who roams about seeking whom he may destroy - loves nothing more than to cause division in families... especially in families that profess Christ as their center and Savior. So even in the disagreements, I pray we do not let them cause dissention or division resulting in dilution of our witness.

And I pray we never let up on our commitment or let down our guard when it comes to keeping our relationships as the center of everything we say and do. If we know the love of the Father and our Savior, then we know someone who loves us in spite of our sin. In return, our love for one another should be the focus of dealing with everything - disagreements included - because the world will know Whose we are by the way we talk to, talk about, engage with, and even deal with disagreements among one another. There are things worth fighting about...

I believe this is one of them.

"... be serious and watchful in your prayers. And above all things have fervent love for one another, for 'love will cover a multitude of sins'." - 1 Peter 4:7b-8