Today we start an 8 week look at ways to love one another.
How can we show and share God’s love in simple, yet meaningful, ways?
Since May we’ve been considering the various ways we are
Blessed by God. We are Blessed to Be God’s own, Blessed to Choose what to do
with that Love, Blessed to Listen to God and Lead others, Blessed to Pray for
and Forgive even when it is difficult. By being Blessed we can be a Blessing to
our family, friends, neighbors, and beyond.
We never know what ripples of Blessing we may start when we
actively begin to live the Love of God in our lives. Often we do this without
even thinking about it. It is in the way we interact with each other. The way
we listen, speak, serve, and support others. Living Love can be a good habit.
As with all habits, sometimes it helps to ‘unpack’ how we might be more effective
in our loving actions. Or we might learn a new way to act lovingly.
One very simple way is to sit down and write a note, or send
a card to someone who isn’t expecting it. How often do we even get handwritten
communication anymore? It’s so much easier to dash off an email or pick up the
phone.
However, there is something about a little note saying ‘you
are loved’, ‘you are appreciated’, ‘you are being thought of’… that is special.
Just last week I got an unexpected card thanking me just for being me. It was
such a surprise it brought tears to my eyes and brightened my day.
Think about your friends and neighbors. Is there something
nice you’d like to write to someone you see across the aisle in church? Have
you noticed someone doing something extra special and want to say ‘well done’?
Is there a lonely person who would welcome a little card saying, ‘I’m thinking
of you’?
Sometimes on social media or the news you hear of someone
writing a little note on a napkin and leaving it for the waitress, or a child
dashing in with a note for police officers at a coffee shop. Those things make
the news because they are out of the ordinary. What if it was a habit we
developed to write a note to at least one person a week?
I wonder what sort of change that would make in lives around us? I
wonder if it would make a change in our lives?
Next week we’ll think about ways that we can share love in
what we say.
