I can remember the day I married my wife, it was a sunny day in September and everything was perfect. We were happy to finally get the chance to say I do. We both thought that after we say I do everything would be wonderful. We would buy our first home together, raise children and serve the Lord with all our hearts.
Things were great for a while, until after the marital bliss was gone and we had settled in. We started to notice that marriage was different than dating. There were things she liked that I hated, and vice versa. My wife grew up doing things one way and I grew doing things a different way.
Then one day we were listening to the radio and heard Dr. Gary Chapman a leading author in biblical marriage counseling talk about a book he had written entitled The Five Love Languages. Right then we realized we spoke different languages and if our marriage was to succeed we had to become bilingual. I had to learn to speak her language and she had to learn to speak mine.
As Christian sometimes we can get so got up into having church and walking in our different roles as believers in the church that we forget to speak the language of our heavenly Father gave us; the language of Love. John 3:34-35 states that we have received a new command; which is to love other believers based on the sacrificial love of Jesus: This is the new language we have to learn, to love others based on the sacrificial love of Jesus.
Our love and support for one another enables us to survive in a hostile world. Just as Jesus Christ was the embodiment of God's love, so now we should embody Christ's love. This love is a sign to the world as well as to every believer.
{God knows that I struggle with this commandment --- Love thy neighbor--- from time to time, but I'm trying really hard to get to that place of maturity with the help of the One who Lives in Me. Ha! It's real work, eh. ((smiles)) }
The two commands, love God, and love your Neighbor, are in my mind really one. To love your neighbor is to love God. To love your wife/husband is the beginning. then come the children (I mean in sequence, not importance), the community, etc. We are after all, 6 billion of us, really just one extended family. The wonderful thing about love is the reward is greater than the cost. And if one is lucky enough to have a mate, I would do everything in my power to keep it so. I had to learn this the hard way.
Sunday, February 28th 2010 at 9:51AM
Steve Williams
JF... love is total and pure we can all be touched with LOVE.
Love what you wrote too; Steve and Shequita!
Sunday, February 28th 2010 at 3:26PM
MIISRAEL Bride
Jen:
Beautiful!!! Beautiful!!! Beautifull!!!
BELOVED, LET US LOVE ONE ANOTHER. FOR LOVE IS OF GOD AND EVERY ONE THAT LOVES IS BORN OF GOD AND KNOWS GOD. FOR GOD IS LOVE.