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Today’s Bible Reading:
Exodus 30; John 9; Proverbs 6: Galatians 5
Sometimes I am tempted to not spend much time meditating on familiar passages. Galatians 5:22-23 is certainly one of those familiar passages. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” (NASB) This comes on the heels of verse 14, “For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” Love. I am celebrating 34 years of marriage and there have been some years where love was not the word of the day. I look at that list of fruits and know I have fallen short many, many times. And therein lies the importance of them all. When I fall short it is most often because I am focused on some fault or some “injury” to my own person. But I do not see that kind of attitude in the list at all. We have not made it through 34 years of marriage because everything has gone smoothly-no disagreements, no disillusions, no disappointments-we made it this far because despite all of that we worked hard to put on love above all else. And this does not just apply to my marriage, but to my family, my church, my workplace…wherever God has placed me. We started out our marriage all starry-eyed and thinking we knew what love was-but it was just a spark at the beginning that has grown into a sustained flame after being tended over the years.
Grace, peace, and mercy,
Debra
Exodus 30; John 9; Proverbs 6: Galatians 5
Sometimes I am tempted to not spend much time meditating on familiar passages. Galatians 5:22-23 is certainly one of those familiar passages. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” (NASB) This comes on the heels of verse 14, “For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” Love. I am celebrating 34 years of marriage and there have been some years where love was not the word of the day. I look at that list of fruits and know I have fallen short many, many times. And therein lies the importance of them all. When I fall short it is most often because I am focused on some fault or some “injury” to my own person. But I do not see that kind of attitude in the list at all. We have not made it through 34 years of marriage because everything has gone smoothly-no disagreements, no disillusions, no disappointments-we made it this far because despite all of that we worked hard to put on love above all else. And this does not just apply to my marriage, but to my family, my church, my workplace…wherever God has placed me. We started out our marriage all starry-eyed and thinking we knew what love was-but it was just a spark at the beginning that has grown into a sustained flame after being tended over the years.
Grace, peace, and mercy,
Debra
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