Negative Love

                Ever since he was born, when my son is not feeling well I take him to his room and we begin to seen praises to the Lord. I want that to become a consistent tradition in our home that when we have a bad day we turn to the Lord in prayer and praise, but for that to become a reality, I have to make it a habit in myself. The problem is that I most often respond to negativity with negativity rather than with prayer or praise.

                This morning my husband and I read Galatians 3. In this chapter, Paul explains to the Galatians the relationship between faith and good deeds. The Galatians are continually judging each other by their deeds and forgot that no amount of good works will win favor with God. The Lord is not interested in our deeds but in our hearts and the actions that flow from our hearts. When you truly believe what Jesus said and your heart is dedicated to God, all of the actions that flow from that will be in line with Scripture.

                I often ask myself questions about my own hypocrisy but one of my biggest areas of hypocrisy is being free to hand out judgment in response to someone else’s negativity and hesitate to distribute love. I can barely imagine myself showing love the next time my husband comes home from work with an attitude or feel overly compassionate when I remove my son from a dangerous object and he proceeds to through a tantrum. Being loving in these situations does not mean that I let my son crawl back into danger or encourage my husband to have a bad attitude, but it means being encouraging and uplifting even when my husband has a negative view of the world or being understanding of my son’s wants and needs. What can I change in my heart to freely love those closest to me and reserve judgment for the Lord?

                Lord, please show me how to give love freely to those closest to me. Help me to love in the way that You love me even in the face of negativity. Amen.