I was holding a notice from my 13-year-old son’s school announcing a meeting to preview the new course in sexuality. Parents could examine the curriculum and take part in an actual lesson presented exactly as it would be given to the students.
If we think of love as an intention, it is easy to see that we can show love toward our partner, our friend, even a stranger. We can send the love we have received from God toward another.
Charles Plum, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate, was a jet fighter pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected & parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured & spent six years in a Communist prison.
A wise friend told me to remember that “you will never meet someone Jesus doesn’t love”. Think about that. Take a look around you. Every person you meet, whether they are your best friend or the person who annoys you the most, Jesus loves them with the same incredible love with which he loves you. What does that say then for how we should treat each other?
A woman named Frances once knew a young person at church named Debbie. Debbie always seemed effervescent and happy, although Frances knew she had faced struggles in her life. Her long-awaited marriage had quickly ended in divorce. She had struggled to get a grip on her single life. She hadn’t chosen it, but she decided she would live it with utmost enjoyment and satisfaction.
Love is a verb. Love that is sustaining – deep love – is more than a feeling. Love is an action. Love doesn’t just “happen.” Love is chosen.
They lie on the table side by side,
The Holy Bible and the TV guide.
One is well worn and cherished with pride,
Not the Bible . . . but the TV guide.
God’s call is clear to us to “love our neighbors as we love ourselves”. This doesn’t mean we will like everybody, it doesn’t mean we’ll all get along all the time. What it does mean is that as much as you want to matter to other people, they want to matter too.
