"Love your neighbor as yourself"
With Valentines Day coming up, we are currently being bombarded with flowers and heart-shaped chocolates. February is all about “love”, but do we always get a true picture of what God intended love to be?
Society likes to paint a flowery picture of love that makes it seem effortless, but I think that we can agree that love isn’t always easy. Sometimes even the people we love the most aren’t easy to love. Whether it be a significant other, our children, our siblings, friends etc; it is inevitable that they will really tick us off sometimes. However, as learned from Jesus’ death on the cross, true love is meant to be a sacrifice. It is easier said than done, but it is important to remember that Jesus created each of us in his image and likeness and we must look for him in everyone we encounter. Jesus calls us to love not just our family and friends, but all of our neighbors as well. And not only that, but he even calls us to love our enemies.
“…Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as well, and from the person who takes your cloak, do not withhold even your tunic. Give to everyone who asks of you, and from the one who takes what is yours, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you” Luke 6: 27-31
I truly believe that the people who are sometimes hardest to love are often the ones that need it most. It is tempting to be selective with our kindness and only give it out when we feel like it; to only the people we want to give it to. I definitely have found myself falling into this with clients and coworkers recently. I so often focus solely on everything disappointing or inconvenient in my life instead of recognizing all of the blessings I have been given. I seem to put this dark cloud of negativity over myself and it affects not only my attitude towards my own life, but also my faith life and the way I treat others. I have come to the realization that it is a lot easier to love others when you focus on trying to truly love God and yourself as well.
So, with lent coming up I have decided to attempt to do a better job of making time to pray and actually write out all of the things I am thankful for. I am also going to try to be more intentional about finding joy in even the most mundane parts of my day, and in doing so I hope to spread joy to others as well. This bible verse I found recently really stood out to me; “A joyful heart is the health of the body but a depressed spirit dries up the bones” Proverbs 17:22. I challenge all of you to reflect on this and find something to work on this lent that will help you live a more joy-filled life and truly love others as we are called to. Pray that I can do the same!
“Which is the first of all the commandments? Jesus replied, the first is this: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these” Mark 12: 29-31