Weekly Devotional:
Devotional Week of January 26th
Love Won Out
By Bobbie Schaeperkoetter
I was in a situation recently where I felt silenced. There were multiple voices in the conversation and mine wasn’t the loudest or the most forceful. It felt as if every time I began to speak, I was talked over.
I know it wasn’t intentional. I love these people, but I still felt frustrated and offended. I thought about raising my voice to talk over those who kept talking over me, but I knew that wouldn’t be helpful, so I paused a moment and considered my options. Instead of fighting to have my voice heard, I felt the invitation to a more humble and gentle way.
The dynamic of the conversation didn’t change right away. I remained unheard for quite a while, but then a shift happened. The louder voices eventually died down and someone asked me for my opinion. I didn’t have to enter the fray. I didn’t have to fight to be louder. I didn’t have to force my way in. I didn’t have to talk over someone else. I simply had to patiently and quietly wait.
I get it wrong just as often as I get it right, but in this situation, love won out.
Ephesians 4:2 invites us to “be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”
I don’t know what your situation is, but I do know this; circumstances in our lives can tempt us to leave the way of love. For me, this is often true when I feel dismissed, disrespected, or disparaged. My ego bruises easily and when it does, I don’t always want to respond in a particularly loving way. In my defensiveness and pride, I can match the energy of the situation around me and cause it to escalate.
Love invites me to a different way. Love invites me to turn the other cheek and go the extra mile (Matthew 5:38-40). Love invites me to be patient and kind instead of rude (1 Corinthians 13:4).
Maybe for you, the circumstance that makes you want to leave the way of love is when someone cuts you off in traffic or when the drive through gets your coffee wrong. Often, it’s the unintentional and inconvenient things that people do that irritate us most.
In these instances, I wonder what it could look like to patiently bear with one another in love? When we feel that pull to enter the fray, to get loud, or to force our own way can we be people who instead choose a more humble and gentle way? Can we be people who let love win out over our own frustration and offense?
Worship:
Verse to Meditate On:
Ephesians 4:2 NIV
“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”
Prayer:
God, give us the ability to choose the way of love. Help us to humble and gentle. Help us to bear patiently with one another. Give us the grace to turn the other cheek and go the extra mile, as you taught us to. Amen.
Practice:
Breath Prayer. Practice slowly breathing thorough this prayer. On the inhale, pray, “Bear with one another.” On the exhale pray, “in love.” This is a breath prayer you can use when those feelings of frustration arise.
Weekly Devotional:
Devotional Week of January 18th
The Best Kind of Compliment
By Robin Klebba
Compliments feel good, don't they? You know the type: true, genuine, and sincerely given. It doesn't always matter if you know the person or not; being called smart, brave, beautiful, inspiring, kind, etc. by whomever can bring the biggest smile.
Indulge me (and yourself) for a moment and think back on a compliment which had an impact on you.
Allow your mind to drift back to that moment.
Where were you?
Who gave it?
What did they say/do?
When did this happen?
How did you feel?
My son is scared of the dark.
I think it started sometime around two and a half years old and was accompanied also by many other phobias.
We are currently in a season with minimal nightmares, but this hasn't always been the case. If you're a parent who has had a child battling fears and nightmares, you get it. It's awful. You would do anything in the world to save them from this and trade spots with them, but you can't.
Gosh, isn't that so many things in life? We want to rescue those we love.
....what a wonder is love. Ah yes, Love...the reality of our situation is that Jesus did actually trade places with us, absorbing death and triumphing over our Enemy in a way we never could. Isn't that amazing? The instinct of protection toward our children is, after all, an image-bearing and love-like response.
One night recently my son wasn't feeling the best. Not sick, but also not well.
I had been gone at work for most of the day, so we were both glad to be in the presence of one another.
We had cuddled for a few minutes as is our custom at bedtime and then I had said good night, eager to eat dinner with my husband.
His call for "Moooooooooommaaaaaaa" came within minutes.
"I'm scared," he said as I stood at the doorway.
I hate to admit it, but many times over the years I have been less than patient and compassionate in moments like this.
It's hard to be needed.
It's hard to eat dinner cold night after night.
It's hard to be patient again and for longer.
If you've blown it at bedtime, I get it. I've been there so many times too.
This particular night, I responded with patience and compassion (praise God).
Entering the room and kneeling at his bedside, I ask him what he needed. "More light" and "get rid of the shadow on the ceiling" and "How about you cuddle with me longer or how about you sleep with me tonight?" These were the quick and mushrooming responses.
Able to solve most of these needs, I lastly cuddled with him for a few minutes. And then he said it:
"When you're with me, I'm not scared."
(Oh, what a compliment.)
He went on to describe how the shadows could be super big but he wouldn't care, not as long as I was in the room.
So often I have noticed my son's breathing settle and a big yawn ensue after just laying by him for a minute.
And isn't this true for all of us? Doesn't the loving presence of another give us relief?
What if...this could be the way it was with God?
What if "even though I walk through the shadow of the valley of death, I will fear no evil because You are with me" wasn't just a verse on a page?
Indeed, this is the kind of relationship I am building with Jesus. It's not constant and my feelings aren't always aligned with my faith, but it's real. Being loved in this way is actually possible to experience, I'm living proof of it.
And I believe it can be yours too.
Worship:
Verse to Meditate On:
Psalm 23: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
Prayer:
Oh, God, may it be so. For every person who prays and asks for your presence to grow in their heart, mind and life, I ask for you to grant it. Indeed, I know you want this! It was you, Jesus, who prayed for all of us to be so intwined in heart with you and with one another! You ask us to seek your face, an up close and personal kind of knowing. So, here I am and here they are. May your will be done. Amen.
Practice:
Journal through the following questions:
If you didn't happen to do this while reading the devotional (no shame, I often skip practical steps too ;), take the time to remember a compliment you've been given. Who gave it? Where were you? What did they say? When was this? How did you feel?
And then, just for extra (or in case you already did the first "assignment"), take a moment and consider the last time you felt God's pleasure in you. Where were you? Why was He pleased? When was this? How did you feel? Take a moment to soak that goodness in—it's GOOD to remember and bask in God's pleasure in us.
