Am I Ready to Love?

The Lord teaches me so much through being a parent. As I watch my children and interact with them, God's Word comes alive and is displayed in living color before me. I see the Father's love and affection for me through my relationship with them. I am reminded of His perfect provision for me through my flawed and limited provision for my family. Often times I recognize and am confronted by my own sin as I address my children's sin. Parenting is a grace from God. It truly is a gift and I'm thankful for it.

Today, my daughters were playing {ahem, fighting} together, but were struggling to share and take turns with their toys. Battles erupted about every 15 minutes throughout the morning. Thankful to God for my slow, yet sure, progress in loving with my words, I matched each battle with gracious words of truth. Teaching and demonstrating how to joyfully and willingly share. This is a tough one for my 6-year-old to grasp, but even more so for my 3-year-old...but I keep with it. Midway through the morning of battles, God reminded me of 1 Timothy 6:18, "Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share..." 

Ready to share.

After diffusing another battle with God's life-giving words, I sat down to think more about that verse for myself. Ready to share. What would it look like to be ready to share? Being "ready" implies forethought, anticipation and preparedness. It's pro-active. This verse suggests that the giver take steps (whether in heart or action) beforehand in order to be "ready" when an opportunity arises. 

I, then, was reminded of my neighbors here. Although they do not yet know Jesus, they set a good example in this readiness to share. I live among a people who share what they have. Many people here intentionally prepare extra food just in case someone happens to stop by for a visit. They want to be ready to share. When traveling my friend buys extra fruit for the trip so that if they happen to meet a new friend (or a smiling face!) they can give a gift. They are ready to share.

This has challenged me deeply. In my desire to love more like Christ, I need to love like He does; continuing to grow in love and then extend it to others, "...may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all people..." 1 Thessalonians 3:12. Jesus is our perfect example. Jesus came to us ready to share. He prepared to share Himself with us before the foundations of the world (Matthew 25:34). Because of Him we share in His righteousness, "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." 2 Corinthians 5:21. He shares His holiness with us, "...but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness." Hebrews 12:10. Then, the ultimate joy: we will be sharing all of eternity with the Father because of Jesus!

My husband and I have already chosen to devote ourselves to live in light of this passage on being ready to share. Giving is a joy of ours. One way we have done this, is by setting aside a set percentage of our income each month that is only to be used for helping and sharing with others. Each year we increase that percentage and praise God for providing the desire and means to do so. We also do other things to live out this verse, however, I feel like the Lord is perhaps preparing my heart to go further in my sharing...and in an area that I personally tend to be more stingy in - my time. Jesus was (and is) generous with His time, and I ought to do the same. Oh, how faithful He is to refine and perfect us - even when it's uncomfortable! 

I love how God uses my everyday life to teach me glorious things - even through my kids' fighting. So, thanks to today's lesson from the Spirit, our family will be taking steps to make ourselves more ready to share, whether it be through the sharing our toys, our money, or our time. And all this to the glory and praise of God!

How about you? Are you ready to share? Is there an area in your heart that needs to be more ready and willing to share? Let's together be more like Christ and ready ourselves to share as He does!