Owe no one anything except to love one another…
The title for this blog post comes from Romans 13:8. November was a hectic month. Now, most of our months are hectic: homeschool, Tae Kwon Do, piano lessons, Spanish lessons, school, teaching, work, Bible study, gathering with the church… At the beginning of the month, we found out that my wife needed surgery on her ankle. We had already planned a family trip to Washington D.C. in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, so we scheduled the surgery for the week after our trip. So, for most of the month, we had to “limp” through our normal schedule while my wife stayed off her feet, recovering from surgery. How did we make it through?
Well, we made it through the month because God continually lavished his love on us through our family, both our earthly family and our brothers and sisters in Christ. We try to live every day dependent on God. That’s not always easy. Sometimes we end up depending on ourselves. Its easy to fall into step with what we know that we can accomplish. Meanwhile, whenever we must depend on God, he is faithful. May we continue to live each day dependent on him.
However, the more we live dependent on God, the more we must realize that everyone is dependent on God. Do we recognize that we owe “love” to one another… not because of what they’ve done for us, but because of who God is and what he has done for us?
As my wife continues to recover, it is my desire to allow God to use us to lavish his love on others. We owe one another love, because we owe God love. I know… I’ve been the recipient of his love in very practical ways over the last few weeks.
Thanks for the reminder and your support and encouragement. I love you!
Margaret
Well, I am just catching up on reading your blog, so this post is a little behind the times. But I wanted to share this:
As I was caring for Samuel today, I was feeling overwhelmed with how much he demands of me. I was tired from feeding, rocking, changing, singing, etc. Ed looked at me and said, “it’s true that he is totally dependent on you to meet all his needs.” I stopped dead in my tracks and thought about that for a second – a child totally dependent on a parent to meet all of his needs. I said back to Ed, “if only I would depend on God to care for all my needs – He knows me in and out, He loves me unconditionally, and He (unlike me) never gets tired of caring for me.”
Leah,
That is an awesome example! Thank you for sharing it with us.
– Alan