I have been reading through Hebrews all summer off and on and came to this today, "Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering;(for he is faithful that promised;) And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works:" The word provoke suggest to irritate. I think that with the context means we persist to push each other to love and good works. We don't though do we. The culture we live in is very isolating. People mind their own business very well. It is still hard for me to show up places unannounced because I grew up in the house no one ever visited. I often felt we put on our church faces so we could all feel good and went back to our lives. I am not the kind of person to be in genuine however, I have learned that people don't want to hear that today is a rough day. They want you to smile and be "joyful," I say that with quotes because I don't think that is what joyful means. You can be sad and still joyful in the love of Jesus. Joy isn't an emotion like happiness or sadness. It doesn't end when the sun goes down. Joy is a fruit of the spirit. I don't claim to be some kind of Biblical expert. These are just some thoughts I had on the subject. As to the holding fast part, well, that is the best part. My faith isn't in what people around me do or say. My faith isn't in my circumstances. My faith isn't in my abilities or lack there of. My faith is in Jesus Christ who bought me with his blood once and for all. People will disappoint me, discourage me, neglect me, mistreat me, even despise me, but the Lord Jesus choose me to be His very own. And yes, he wants that for everyone. John 3:16
As a kid I watched my parents fight about different things. I don't really have any other parents to compare them to so I can't really say whether they were normal fights couples have or not. I couldn't even say what most of them were about except the ones that were about me. We only ate as a family on holidays. My father came home late so we kids ate without him. I do remember spending time with him in the evening before I went to bed so it couldn't have been that late. My own husband gets home a little later because of his job commute so we eat late every night. But home schooling has given us the ability to be more flexible than my Mom was able to be. We had school early the next day. As I got older, I remember my Father being home less and less and the fights seemed to intensify. I remember one night when I was thirteen. I could hear them yelling through the wall. My mom found me crying and I told her I didn't want them to get a divorce. She told me...
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