“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”
John 13:34 ESV
On this dreary Friday, having love for one another was met with some fairly common obstacles. I woke up with a migraine in progress, and my boys were less than enthusiastic to get out of bed (Aren’t we all some days?), which dissolved into a symphony of whines and frustrated sighs, eye rolls and dragging feet. And it’s not just the kids’ moods that needed a tune up. Mine was just as sour.
<sigh>
Mornings can be difficult. They certainly aren’t our forte here at the Eddleman household, but we wipe the sleep out of our eyes and eat breakfast and wake up a little more and get our gear together and wake up some more and get loaded into the truck while the chilly fall air wakes us up even more.
And then, as I drive, we pray. We pray for our day. We pray for each other. We pray for our teachers and friends and family. We pray for ears that listen and eyes that see and hearts that love and hands that help and do our best. We pray with thanks for all that God has done and is doing in our lives. We pray with praise for who He is and the day He has given us. We pray with repentant hearts.
And we can start to feel the atmosphere around us and the posture of our hearts soften. We may still be a little sleepy, but we are more loving to each other and more aware of God’s presence and love.
As a disclaimer, it’s not always this way. Some mornings are more emotionally charged than others and need more time and thought to overcome, and some rare mornings are beautiful and loving and bright from the minute our eyes open.
Human emotion is a tricky thing to pin down and predict with any certainty, so when it comes to love—agape love, as is used in the verse above—maybe we start focusing on what can be changed—our actions.
What we do says so much more about who we are than what we say.
We can choose to hold our tongues when our thoughts are less than loving. We can help our brother or sister wash their hands before school. We can give an encouraging pat on the back. We can apologize and follow through with making things better. We can pray for others and not just ourselves. We can extend each other grace and give people the benefit of the doubt. We can share our toys and help pick up the mess afterward.
We can choose to be the calm to our kids’ chaos and not be baited into a battle of wills.
None of these undertakings requires us to love mornings or even to be in a happy mood. This kind of love chooses selflessness over self. It is God in us, friends.
We love because He first loved us … and loves us more abundantly than we could ever imagine, despite our multitude of shortcomings. That’s the kind of love Jesus commands of us—being willing to unselfishly seek and do the very best for one another.
“By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love and unselfish concern for one another.”
JOHN 13:35 AMP
So, as we wake up tomorrow morning and begin ushering our little ones out of bed and out the door, I pray we will remember to agape love one another with not only our words but also our actions.
It may not be the easiest or most natural thing we’ve ever done, but it will be worth it.
Go in grace, friends!
FREEBIE FRIDAY
This 8”x10” black-and-white printable reminds us of Jesus’s command to love one another with an unselfish love that seeks the best for each other. It would make a perfect companion to last week’s freebie Count It All Joy, and a third is in the works!
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
JOHN 13:34-35 ESV
