We are in the month of love! This month usually centers around romantic love (which is also important to let my husband know how much I love him) but we are trying to focus on loving others in general this month. Maybe it’s because we are in the middle of winter but it seems like we have been breaking up more fights between siblings recently. I have also felt God convicting me that maybe my kids are fighting with each other and talking lowly about others because they see this behavior in me.
The Sunday school lesson we taught last week from this book discusses the rules that we receive in the first five books of the Bible. There are a total of 613 rules in the first five books of the old testament. It is pretty hard to remember that many commands so we can basically boil everything down to two commands:
1.) Love God
2.) Love Others
Everything else would fall under either of these two categories.
Not only was this something I think the kids desperately needed to hear, but it was something I desperately needed to hear. We have been working through arguments and trying to build some empathy in the kids and God is showing me through this process just how much I think of myself. I can ride a pretty high horse and I can think I am better than others when no one is good, not even one. (Romans 3:10-12)
In my BSF class we have been studying David’s life. In 2 Samuel 8:2, David has just defeated the Moabites and he does something interesting: “And he defeated Moab and he measured them with a line, making them lie down on the ground. Two lines he measured to be put to death, and one full line to be spared. And the Moabites became servants to David and brought tribute.” My BSF Notes say this about that verse: “David’s actions against the Moabites may seem cruel
and arbitrary, but perhaps they are meant to give us a picture of Gods’s grace. Two-thirds of the Moabites were killed. Yet, God’s mercy for His enemies is also shown. One-third of them were spared. The seemingly random selection offers truth about the justice of God’s wrath against His enemies. All people are born sinners, enemies of God. None is more deserving of being spared the due penalty of sin – death – than any other. No efforts, intentions or works can earn mercy or salvation from God. Yet, God chooses to save some. At his own expense, God saves sinners from their sin for a new life that serves as a living witness to both the fierce might and great grace of God.”
We all deserve God’s judgement. It is a very sinful thought to think that I deserve God’s judgement less than someone else. That is a lie. I don’t want to make the mistake in thinking that I am more holy than anyone else. There is only one who that is true of.
Sensing that our family could use some work in this area, we have challenged ourselves to memorize 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter. We have also committed to identifying whenever we are thinking or speaking negatively of someone else and stopping in our tracks.
Habits in our lives can be hard to break so we know that going to God for prayer in this area is essential. I have already noticed a difference in my attitude towards others.