Loving during the Christmas Season
Posted on December 1, 2011 by Pastor Tom
“We should be more loving at Christmas.” Have you ever heard that? Felt that? Believed that? The coming of the Christmas season brings all kinds of opportunities and PRESSURE. We’re supposed to love everybody and be kinder and generous and joyous. What if you don’t feel like doing that?
I’m reading Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas right now. I would have to say, it’s one of the best books on marriage and the motivations behind our loving that I’ve ever read. The principles he talks about in loving a spouse can be extended to other relationships. Here’s something that spoke to me today. I hope you find it encouraging in some way.
“The problem is that love must be acquired. Katherine Anne Porter writes “Love must be learned, and learned again and again; there is no end to it. Hate needs no instruction, but waits only to be provoked.”
Love is not a natural response that gushes out of us unbidden. Infatuation sometimes does that – at the beginning of a relationship at least – but hate is always ready to naturally spring forth, like the “Old Faithful” geyser at Yellowstone National Park. Christian love, on the other hand must be chased after, aspired to, and practiced.”
So maybe we can approach this Christmas from a different angle. Instead of saying “I should be more loving to everyone” we might pray: “Lord, continue to grow me in loving others. Help me to chase after, aspire to and practice love to others in my life this Christmas season wherever they are at.”
So instead of putting standards on others that they must meet before we give them love, we might look at this Christmas season as an opportunity to receive God’s teaching on how to love others, whether or not they meet our standard.
May God help us to grow in love this Christmas!
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