Uh, oh...Love Keeps No Record of Wrongs?

1 Corinthians 13:4-7: Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs...

Missy here. Talking about that last part, love keeps no record of wrongs...

Okay, I’ll admit I forgot to mail a check to a friend recently. I also forgot to make my son a haircut appointment (poor thing looked like he had a growth out the back of his head!). And I forgot to buy ice cream at the grocery. I forgot…I forgot…I forgot…

I forget a lot of things. But I bet I can tell you every single time my husband irritated me last week! :) And I can tell you exactly which days my youngest two kids fought on the way home from school. (Not hard to do. It was EVERY SINGLE DAY last week!) I can tell you the biggest mistakes my parents made while I was growing up. I can even tell you friends who have hurt my feelings over the last 20+ years.

Love keeps no record of wrongs. Oh, my.

I guess I’m in big trouble.

So I’m asking for help from you (and from God). How can I let these little things go and truly love my husband? I mean, come on, how bad is it, truly, that he’s so fastidiously organized while my piles are exploding everywhere? Shouldn’t I be thankful?? :) And so what if he moves my piles out of his way on occasion? (No, he doesn’t understand that I know where everything is in those piles!) And so what if he hogs the covers? And hogs the remote control?

Maybe I can focus more on the sweet things he does, like helping with the laundry, taking the dogs out each morning, emptying the dishwasher, taking care of the kids while I’m at conferences, offering to make me a sandwich when I’m writing toward a deadline (and missing meals)…

Love keeps no record of wrongs.

Okay, how do you do this with the man you love? How do you do this with your parents or your children? How do you love them with a First Corinthians 13 kind of love?

P.S. Don't forget Valentine's Day is Saturday!!

Praying in Rough Times

I was thinking about our theme verse for January, Romans 8:28. And when I went to look it up in my Bible, I was reminded which verses come right before that.

Romans 8:26-27:
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is in the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

I’ve always loved those verses. Have you ever been at a point where you were so scared or traumatized or grieving that you found you couldn’t even pray? I have. I’ve been there more than once, and it’s not a good place to be.

But I’m so thankful that part of this Bible passage was tucked away in my memory, and that God brought it to mind. It was a comfort to know that though all I could do was just groan in pain and grief, the Spirit was interceding for me. I felt as if God was holding me in His hands.

I love how The Message states it:
Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans.

What a comfort.

Have you been to the point where you didn’t know how or what to pray?

Missy