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The Love of Christ

 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.  (Matthew 7:12) 

Today’s post flips the coin from yesterday, turning from our natural responses to our chosen responses. The exercise is to bring to mind each member of your family, and to ask God for an idea of how you can demonstrate Christ’s love to them before the day ends. This can easily be expanded to the people you work with, friends, or neighbors. In fact, my best example of a failure involves how I treated my dog at 3:30 am when she wanted to go out and stay out. The first time she asked to go out, I took her. By the fourth trip out in 15 minutes, I had lost my patience. Yes, two of the trips were necessary and maybe if I’d stayed out with her a little longer for one of those trips, the other three wouldn’t have been necessary, and yes, she doesn’t really understand the notion of “it’s 3:30 am!”

But that’s not the example Jesus sets. He’s available. Three-thirty wouldn’t be a problem for Him. He’s patient. Four trips at 3:30 probably wouldn’t have happened because He’d have stood long enough to have met the need, not saying, “Hurry up” every 2.76 seconds. So, two habits to develop: putting aside stuff and taking time with people.

Another idea presented in the book I’ve been reading is that God is attentive. He pays attention. I can pay attention – exhaustive attention, but it’s not to people. It’s to information, ideas, and tasks. And that brings me to what might be a third good habit to develop – actually looking at people. That’s going to take some work.

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