Last night, when I was spending time with the Lord, I decided I would take the next 9 days to work on the Fruits of the Spirit. I'm taking one a day and asking the Holy Spirit to speak to me on how to better use those gifts on an everyday basis. Some flow naturally, but others I really want to get better at!
So today I started with Love. My first "love" test began at 1:30am this morning when my darling son would not stay in his bed. Ever since Aaron got sick last week, his schedule has been thrown off and he has been getting up multiple times at night. Usually, he goes to bed and stays asleep all night (unless to go potty). He's always been an easy kid when it comes to bedtime. Praise Jesus! BUT, the past several nights have been rough. Really rough. He's been waking up, coming in our room and crawling up into our bed. We have always been anti "kid-in-the-bed" so we just pick him up and take him back to bed. Well, let's just say we tucked him back in his bed about 14 different times last night between the wee hours of 1:30-5:00. Back and forth we went until we were both utterly exhausted. Finally at 5:00am, we caved and decided to let him lay down with us. It didn't even take him 2 minutes to fall fast asleep between us.
As I was getting ready this morning (with dark circles under my eyes), I pondered on Love. How could I show more Love today? Different scriptures came to mind.
...and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us (Eph 5:2)
....Love your neighbor as yourself
How could I truly put aside all selfishness and love others with a Pure Love as God loves me? How could I better communicate unconditional love to those around me?
If you've ever asked the Holy Spirit to constantly speak to you about something throughout your entire day, it's pretty amazing. It seemed like every minute I would hear Him whisper gently to me.
"Just email her and tell her you love her."
"Compliment that person's outfit."
"Reach over and touch your husband and tell him how much you love and appreciate him."
"Hold your son when he starts whining, instead of being harsh and corrective."
"Think about what that person may be dealing with today and have extra grace for them."
"Substitute encouraging words instead of being witty and sarcastic."
"Say that in a gentler way"
"Don't speak, just listen"
Love, love, love!
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I love this! No pun intended. It's so true that when you listen, HE sometimes says things the exact opposite of what you would normally think works the best, but whatever HE says works even better than you ever could've imagined! By the way, I love you, friend!
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