Love for a Lifetime Discussion Day 5

Good Morning!

Day 5

We live in a world that encourages quick fixes. If something breaks or falls apart we either throw it away or take it back to the store and exchange it for something new. I believe that this “just trash it” mentality has crept into our love relationships and has led to us wanting to give up and say, “It’s just not worth it!” This kind of thinking causes us to want to throw our relationships away or at least take our partners or sometimes our kids and family members back to where they came from and exchange them for something better!! We think to ourselves, maybe I married the wrong person or they can’t possibly be my soul mate! I’m just not “in” love with them anymore or we’ve just grown apart! Sometimes we think we can’t have possibly come from the same parents or I don’t know where this child came from!

God knew that we would encounter disappointments and challenges in our relationships with our significant others, our children, and even our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ and so He tells us in Colossians 3:12-14, to “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” The “put on then” says to me that it is a conscious choice that we must make to “put on” these qualities when we walk as chosen ones, holy and beloved. When each of us gets dressed, we make a decision on what we will “put on” and if you’re anything like me, you take great care and consideration on what you will “put on”! What would happen in our love relationships if every day we took some care and consideration and “put on” all the things this scripture is telling us we should? And what if we did as this scripture commands us to “above all these ‘put on” love” knowing that love is the glue that “binds everything together in perfect harmony.”? Perfect harmony…I’d like to rest in that!

So even if you are already physically dressed today, you can still make a choice to spiritually dress yourself in compassion, humility, meekness, patience, perseverance, forgiveness and love. Let’s go into our secret closet and ask our Father to help us get dressed!

Research – Colossians 3

Relate – Check out your spiritual closet, do you have the qualities listed in this scripture as part of your wardrobe? Are you choosing to put them on each day?

Respond – Choose to “put on” these qualities today, especially if you are in a situation that is difficult or challenging.

Reflect – How are you usually dressed? Are you dressed with the qualities in this scripture or are you dressing yourself in qualities contrary to the word of God? (selfishness, fear, jealousy, anger)

Discussion Question – Pick a quality from this scripture and discuss why you think it is important in building and strengthening our love relationships?