I'm reading an excellent book and have recently completed a chapter that has served as a wonderful reminder of showing love by the choices we make. It is impressive to me the way books work. One person might come away with different thoughts than another person based on where each individual is in their life. I'm thinking a great deal about several points even though I'm only midway through the work.
What I'd like to share about today is showing love through our actions and daily living.
If we claim to love someone, which we do actually proclaim regardless of what we verbally say, it should impact how we live. For example, I'm a wife, so it is presumed and expected that I love my husband. I'm a mother, so it is presumed and expected that I love my children. If I fail to demonstrate love to my husband and children, who does it reflect poorly on? Is it solely me, or is it also my Savior, who I claim to represent? How important is it that everything my life touches looks and IS excellent as a representative of Jesus Christ?
We live in a world surrounded by social mores, and we all know what love looks like in general. We also know what it does not look like.
In thinking of these two very important areas of my life, my husband/children, and God who has given me all good things, these are the thoughts I'm having:
How do I take care of the people and things I am thankful for?
How can someone tell something or someone is neglected? (Can we assume what is cared for by someone is likewise valued by them?)
What are the things my husband cares about? Do I take time to nurture those things daily? Can people see that I'm doing, or not doing, that?
What about my children? Are there things they care about? Am I taking time to value those things with my actions and words?
When my Savior has called me home and people are standing around talking and reflecting on my life, I want them to reflect on how hard I worked to represent Christ well in everything I did. I want my home, inside and out, to reflect gratitude and appreciation for those in it and for the fact of being given it to raise our family in. I want my body to reflect gratitude to God in how I take care of it, and for it to be obvious I view my body as not belonging to me, but to my husband and ultimately, the Lord. I want my work to show that I answered to Someone higher than who was paying me to do the work. I want my children to be a representation of a life poured into them in the right ways--the correct balance of giving, withholding, sacrifice, indulgence...and I want my words to build up and not tear down. God help me.
Each of us have areas in which we need to grow. Are we taking time to assess those? Do we listen carefully when we're given advice on how we might need to change or do we dismiss it out of hand? Do we read the Bible and sound books on how to live righteously or do we assume we know it all? Do we spend much of our time looking at the faults of others rather than looking at ourselves to see where we fall short so we can improve? Are we most concerned with being known, or with getting to know others? Often if we would stop talking and listen, we will find what those around us need rather than worrying so much about what we want that we don't have, or what we want to try to impart to them.
May God have mercy on us and help us grow more like Him.
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