Loving even when it's hard

I'll just start by saying that yesterday was HARD.  Downright difficult.  Trials from the get-go.  

I was tired.  Funny that I would feel so tired after Isabel slept the whole night through for the second time (YAY!) 

But I was tired.

We all really struggled to get along.  

I had a headache.

It's so easy to be selfish and respond to things based upon how I feel.  The Holy Spirit helps me and I am reminded of God's Word and the need to obey it, but sadly, I don't always make the right choice.

I felt exhausted, sapped, I could not seem to muster the desire to parent, though parent I must...feel like it or not.

I felt like I was constantly correcting wrongs.  Mediating between two offended parties.  

I lost count of how many children ended up in tears.  At one point, two at once!  At another point, me!  

Oh how I needed the grace and help of God to not completely blow it.  Much prayer.  Much, much prayer.

This is when it is sooooo hard to be godly. 

When the people you love most are getting on your last nerve...this is reality.  I love them, they're amazing, they're cute, they bless me, they're fun...but loving...truly loving...is downright HARD to do.

Especially God's way.  When warm and fuzzy feelings are gone and you love anyway, because God did that with you while you were yet in your sins. 

And all day long yesterday, I tried.  I failed.  And I tried again.  I taught.  I led by example.  And I failed to BE an example.  But God gives grace through it all.

This is where the rubber meets the road.  As Amera and I sat at the dining room table and discussed it this morning over a cup of coffee.  She knows how hard it was for all of us yesterday.  Again we read Colossians chapter three...and together we sought to understand what this means...

If (since) then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where 

Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth.

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 

The way we naturally want to respond to things is earthly and corrupted by sin.  God's ways are higher.

As we went through the list in verse twelve of qualities that we should have since we are alive in Christ, we thought of Christ who was compassionate toward people.  The Bible says that he saw that the people were like sheep without a shepherd and he had compassion on them.  People who don't know what they are doing or what they ought to do can really frustrate and annoy us.  Really we wish everyone "knew better", especially our children.  Do we have compassion?

We spoke of meekness and humility.  These too we see in Christ.  

As we shared our hearts together, and I thought about Jesus, I remembered something that I had read the other day.  I really think that it doesn't matter how much you've read the Bible, sometimes a verse or a passage can be so stunning that you wonder if you had ever read it before.  This is the passage I had read...

Now the men who were holding Jesus in custody were mocking him as they beat him.

They also blindfolded him and kept asking him, 

"Prophesy!  Who is it that struck you?"

And they said many other things against him, blaspheming him.

Luke 22:63-65

This morning we read it together.  I told her that I could barely stand to imagine it.  I couldn't help but cry for the sadness of it.  I sat there weeping at my dining room table, I was so overcome with grief that my Lord would suffer like that.  And it was for the joy that was set before him.  He was doing the Father's will and he would bring many sons to glory.

If only we could get a grasp on the eternal rewards of living as God tells us to.  That every look, word, and action matters in our relationships with one another and with God.    

Jesus, of whom the scripture says is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.  The one who created all things in heaven and on earth...all things were created through him and for him...endured this!

I feel pain in my chest to think of it.  He went through sheer horror.  

To reconcile us to God.  To give us peace.  And joy.  To show us how to truly love with such utter selflessness.  

As it says in Colossians 3:10, those who have faith in Christ have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 

Yes, this "new self" is being renewed every day, one day at a time.  I want to be more like my Lord who gave himself for me.

...Bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another,

forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive.

And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.  

Colossians 3:13-14