Love Changes People and The Home is the Best Place for That
Many doorways to home
Knowledge does not change people. Love and acceptance does. Especially if that love is from or includes or directs people to God. Many times the way the Lord's love is felt is simply through the actions of normal everyday people. Our job is to help others feel His love. We can do that by sharing our love, and helping to set the stage for situations where they can feel His love as well.
Maybe the best place for this is in the home. Church leaders, teachers, friends, and other congregants can love their fellow church goers, but the time there is so limited. Church services are a place to feel closer to the Lord, feel the spirit, and ultimately to be informed. But only for a few hours a week normally. The home is the place to feel love day in and day out, see the gospel in action, learn to love those that irritate us, and to see examples of true charity and caring for others.
We need to see our homes more as the training grounds, the place to learn of Christ. Churches are there to support those efforts. The home is where it becomes real. Not everyone has a home where this is possible. Not everyone has a home, let alone a loving one. That is where we all come in. We can be with people in need or those that are struggling as often as we can. They can be invited into our homes. We can walk with them. Ask them to serve with us. We can spend time with more people. Love them without an agenda. Let them see that God loves them as often as we can. That is what changes people.
"We don’t need to spend as much time as we do telling people what we think about what they’re doing. Loving people doesn’t mean we need to control their conduct. There’s a big difference between the two. Loving people means caring without an agenda. As soon as we have an agenda, it’s not love anymore. It’s acting like you care to get someone to do what you want or what you think God wants them to do. Do less of that, and people will see a lot less of you and more of Jesus." (Bob Goff, "Everybody, Always")
On Christmas Day this year, I was struck by how important remembering is. Christmas is a time when families and individuals repeat long used traditions. It is a time when we remember the times we were young, or when our children were young. We remember good Christmases and bad ones. There may be pain and sadness as well has joy and laughter in those memories. Remembering is such an important part of the holiday.