The Plumbline

They invented hugs to let people know you love them without saying anything. (Bil Keane) Forget about the wrong things people do to you. Don’t try to get even. Love your neighbor as yourself. (Leviticus 19:18) As we move on with our 'new year', perhaps it would be good to rekindle a few relationships that have grown a bit too cool over the past year. It begins with the one we have with our heavenly Father first, then it flows outward. As we recommit to spending time with Jesus each day, getting into his word, and allowing him to guide our path, we need to prayerfully consider other relationships that may need a little 'uplift'. If we haven't invested ourselves deeply, it could be that God is asking us to do so this year. I know some may feel they are being prompted to begin anew with relationships that need a bit more of their attentiveness. It may have become easy to think 'time spent together' is 'building' a relationship, but it is more than '...

Little children, let us stop just saying we love people; let us really love them, and show it by our actions.  ( 1 John 3:18 TLB )  Just how hard is it to love someone? If we are really honest here, it is much harder than just saying we love them, right? In fact, it is quite easy to say those words at times, and in the back of our mind we are really saying, "You have no idea how much everything has been getting on my nerves lately," or maybe "I do love you, but I have no time to really show you that love right now." It is much harder to show we love someone than it is to speak the words. We mask our true feelings many times with those three words - they are like a bandage we can apply that will actually mean very little to the other person because they are just words spoken into the air. Words mean very little if the corresponding actions are not there to back them up! I think this is why the Apostle Paul penned the words of I Corinthians 13 - to help us see th...