In order to learn this manner, we must put on love. REAL LOVE!!!! Do you know there are two Greek words for love? One is agapao and that means to love dearly. The second one is phileo, and this love is expressed with friendship or a fondness of someone. We use the word love often in our conversations don't we? We may say "Oh I love that book or that pizza", but what do we really mean when we use the word love there? We just mean we are fond of it or we really like it. We need to be careful about our choice of words. One afternoon, one of my children said, "Mommy do you love me as much as you love your tea?" That really got me to thinking. That morning I had said, "Oh I just love this blueberry tea." See I used a word that didn't really fit there. It caused my child to think I could love my tea just as I loved her. That is not even fathomable. I could never love anything more than I love my kids and husband and my Lord, but by using that word so flippantly, I raised that doubt in her little mind. I had to tell her that Mommy couldn't possibly love anything more than I loved her and her siblings and daddy, and that my love for God went beyond that.
Real love is not a feeling, but an action. We are commanded by God to love one another. We must chose to do it because God has told us to and we are to obey Him out of love. We need to put others needs above our own. This is an act of love. We need to be sure the others feel our love by the way we treat them and talk to them. You are probably thinking, "How do I love the unlovable?" This is where God comes in. He is LOVE. He teaches us how to love like He does. We just need to spend time in His Word and praying in order for this to come about.
When we are teaching this manner to our children, we must be sure they know that love is a verb. They need to know they may not always "feel" like loving someone, but it is not a feeling. It is an action! We can choose to be loving because God loves us. He loved us so much, He was willing to come to earth as a man, suffer and die on the cross for our sins, and then raise from the dead in order for us to live eternally with Him, if we choose to believe on Him as our Savior. God is LOVE. He gives His love to us even though we don't deserve it and we need to follow His example.
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ~ Romans 5:8
"One of the world's worst tragedies is that we allow our hearts to shrink until there is room in them for little beside ourselves."
~ A.W. Tozer
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As we demonstrate love for others, it will be easier for us to watch what we say. We won't want to call people names or to hurt them with our unkind words. We will want to encourage them, build them up, and show them the love of our Father. Are you ready to put on love?
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