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February Devotional
Sweet February - the month of hearts
and chocolate and roses. A season for nostalgically
remembering romance and young love and best friends.
Do you recall giving Valentines to everyone in your
third grade class room? Maybe you were like me - and
there was one stinky boy that you did not want to
give a Valentine to - he didn't deserve it ... he
was never nice ... and he was always in trouble with
the teacher. But, because of classroom policy and
my mom's insistence, even the stinky 8 year old boy
was given a Valentine signed by none other than me.
Not much has changed in the ensuing years, has it?
There are still people who are just extremely difficult
to love. God has set a classroom policy for us and
it is enforced by the life of Jesus Christ. We are
to not only love our families and best friends - but
we are to sincerely love with great fervency even
our enemies! We are to bless those who curse us and
pray for those who mistreat us! I guess that we did
not learn our lesson in the third grade, did we?
In my ordinary life, the years between third grade
and adulthood quickly passed with heartfelt attempts
to live my life for Christ and to truly love the people
in my life. As a young adult, I was offered my dream
job - it was the chance of my young lifetime! I had
prayed for this door to open and I had to pinch myself
to believe that I was really in the right place at
the right time. I thought I had surely "arrived"
and that my life was going to start on a new, perfect
course.
I met everyone in the office on my first day at work
and they couldn't have been nicer to me, the new girl
from the North. They greeted me with a magnolia leaf
in their mouths and offered to do anything at all
to help me make a smooth transition.
The second day at work, I noticed some minor friction
between some of the staff but I knew that everyone
didn't get along all the time and this was to be expected.
By my third day at my dream job, I realized that I
had just entered the battlegrounds for World War III
and that I was caught in the crossfire. One employee,
especially, made it her goal in life to patronize,
demean and humiliate me at every chance that came
her way. However, when the president of the corporation
was in the room, Nancy was as sweet as southern molasses
but the minute that he left, Nancy became the wicked
witch of the west!
Every day, before I left for work in the morning,
I prayed for Nancy and that I would be kind to her
all day long. Every day all the way home in my little
orange Volkswagen, I begged God to help me show my
love for her in practical ways. What in the world
could I have done to deserve this treatment? I knew
that I was naive but I wasn't stupid and I very much
wanted to do something ... anything at all ... to
fix the situation.
One afternoon when we were both in the same room,
I tried to strike up a conversation with her as we
accomplished some mundane tasks. Nancy looked at me
and said, "You really don't get it, do you? I
don't want to tell you how my weekend was. I don't
want to exchange pleasantries with you. All I want
is for you to leave me alone." (Except she didn't
say it quite as nicely as that!)
Nothing worked. Nothing at all. Craig, my sweet husband
whom I found very easy to love, encouraged me not
to give in to my emotional frustration but to keep
praying and to keep blessing and to believe for God
to bring a miraculous breakthrough.
Two years at my supposed dream job passed by quickly
when I found out that I was pregnant. The nesting
instinct hit me immediately and I could not wait to
leave the battlefield of office intensity for the
true calling of my life - motherhood. My relationship
with Nancy had settled into a strained co-existence
of Pollyanna and Darth Vader. On my last day at work,
Nancy called me into her office and closed the door.
I sat there in fear and trembling hoping that the
trauma of the moment wouldn't leave lifetime scars
on my unborn child.
Nancy held a piece of tissue in one hand as she started
to cry but reached out to me with her free hand, "Carol,
I hated you from the moment that I laid eyes on you.
You are from the North and I am from the South. I
couldn't understand a word that you said to me. You
are white and I am black. You have a husband who loves
you and I have a husband who cheats on me. Now, you
are pregnant and I have been told that I will never
have children. I am sorry that I have been so mean
and bitter toward you but I wanted to see if I could
break you down. I wanted to see if this Christianity
thing was for real and I found out that it was. Will
you pray for me before you leave?"
I Peter 1:22 says this, "Since you have in obedience
to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love
of the brethren, fervently love one another from the
heart." I Peter 1: 22
Love always finds a way through. It might take two
weeks or two years or two decades but the love of
Christ is able to break through the toughest heart
and the coldest soul.
I hope that during the month of February you will
find great joy in making a project out of unlovable
people. Perhaps this month you will challenge yourself
to find out exactly how much love you are able to
give to the scratchiest person in my life. Challenge
yourself to be better than you can humanly be and
to rely on the love of Christ to love a difficult
person through you. When God sends a fractious person
into your life, it is not to frustrate you, steal
your joy or for you to run the other way but it is
for you to rely on the love of God to splash out of
your heart and into their lonely life. Remember -
it's February - it's time to send a Valentine to all
of the people in your life! |
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