Ephesians 1:15-18
I have heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all of God’s people. So I never stop being grateful for you, as I mention you in my prayers. I ask the glorious Father and God of our Lord Jesus Christ to give you his Spirit. The Spirit will make you wise and let you understand what it means to know God. My prayer is that light will flood your hearts and that you will understand the hope that was given to you when God chose you. Then you will discover the glorious blessings that will be yours together with all of God’s people.
Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991,1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.
Timothy began to grow tired late one morning, and the litany began…”I’m thirsty! I’m hungry! I don’t want to lie down! I want this…I need that!” Greg said, “I don’t think he is any of those things…he knows he needs a nap, and these are diversions.” And he was right. As the protests grew louder and the tears came, I snuggled him with a cup of juice, and soon, he was calm…not quite asleep - but the food and other “demands” had been forgotten.
So often, we don’t really pay attention to what children are telling us. We grow impatient with them when they have outbursts instead of stopping to determine the true root of the problem. We stifle their and actions and miss the signals and messages they are trying to send us. And sadly, we devalue them by doing this. We do the same thing with “children of God” in our daily living.
In Kathryn Stockett’s The Help, Aibileen Clark (played by Viola Davis in the movie version), tells her little charge, Mae Mobley… “You is kind. You is good. You is important!” She reminds the chubby little girl of her value apart from the color of her skin and her family’s “standing” in the community. She wants this child to understand that she is valued on her own merits…that what she says, does and thinks matters! And this is the message I wish to convey to you today.
Regardless of the family into which you were born…your race…skin color…appearance…sexual orientation…socio-economic position…political leaning…or even your past…you are precious to God. If you have asked Jesus to forgive your sins and received the Holy Spirit into your heart, you have the capacity for wisdom and the ability to understand what it means to truly know God. If you are a born-again child of God, you carry His light in your heart and are filled with His hope. In God’s eyes…“You is kind. You is good. You is important!” And as your fellow “sister in Christ,” you are all of those things to me - and I am grateful for you.
It is our privilege to pray for fellow believers…members of our “Christian family”. It is important that we let others know that they are important to us…that their joys, sorrows, triumphs and defeats matter - greatly! As Christian disciples, we must always build up other Christians…we must always encourage them and offer heartfelt compassion for their feelings. In this manner, we fortify the Kingdom of God by strengthening and boosting the spirits of one another. We must be kind and loving toward non-believers, too. But for today, I am concentrating on our Christian “family”, because so often we tend to take each other for granted…to look beyond fellow believers and concentrate only on the “unsaved”.
Today, I encourage you to stop and pay attention to your family members…those in your physical family as well as your spiritual “siblings”. Are you treating them with the same value that God gives them? Do you pay attention when they speak? Do you really “get” what they are trying to share with you? Do they know that you care for them…that your prayers on their behalf are frequent and heartfelt? Do they feel like you believe them to be kind…good…important?
In essence, it boils down to this question…”Are you a good ‘relative’ in God’s ‘family’?” Isn’t it time you made the necessary changes to become an effective supporter and encourager to others? Could your discipleship use a little “spit and polish”? You is kind. You is good. You is important...to God – and to me. Do your “family” members know that you feel this way about them? Shouldn’t they?
©2014 Debbie Robus
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