The things we do for love

I love weddings.

I mean, I really, really love 'em. The flowers, the food, the dress, the music . . . I think I pay way more attention than most guests.

But three weddings in two weeks is a little exhausting. Actually, I can’t really say it’s exhausting because I haven’t run the gauntlet of two-weddings-in-less-than-24-hours quite yet. (That happens this weekend.) Did I mention that the two weddings are really far apart? As in, one’s in Ohio, and the other is in Mississippi. Yeah, that’s going to require a plane ride.

Oh, the things we do for love—or in this case, other people’s love.

Kind of like God. Of course, He has the advantage of being everywhere at once, so He could skip the plane ride. (But He won’t, because I make it a point to talk to God on planes . . . something about feeling a little closer to heaven while being up that high really makes me want to pray. That, and the threat of death by plane crash at any moment.)

As I study our God’s unique love and what He'll do for those He loves, I get a little impatient with His patience in the Old Testament. I kind of want Him to zap the Israelites for their inability to be loyal to Him. He made water come out of rocks and fed them when there was nothing to eat and made their enemies cry like little girls. Come on, guys; show some backbone and demonstrate some faithfulness!!

Oh no, I realize. I’m just like the Israelites. I forget about talking to God when I get busy; secretly wish some people would hurry up and get what’s coming to them—preferably in public so I can watch; and routinely avoid the homeless people on the sidewalk. (And yes, those things bother me, and I’m not proud to admit them.) So I don’t really deserve His lovingkindness either.

But He gives it anyway, over and over again.

And it’s my responsibility to try to emulate Him in that. So when one of my girls continues to distract the others during small group week after week and I want to ask her to not come back, I need to work even harder to love her and handle the situation the best way, not the easy way. When rumors of one of my girls getting wild on the weekends come back to me, I need to talk with her about that, not just hope her parents are in control of that situation. And when my girls are being completely unlovable, I need to remember how faithfully God loves them (and me!) and try to show them His love with my actions.

It’s a big job, but someone’s got to do it. And I’m so honored to get to serve our girls along with women like YOU.  Never underestimate your impact!

Happy Weekend! :)