Monday, July 29, 2013

Guest Blog by Janice Gleason

“Love…keeps no record of wrong…” 1 Corinthians 13:5
I really like lists but when I begin to make lists for others I can get in big trouble…who likes to be handed a list of your personal wrongs?  I can do that frequently in my mind and sometimes recite it out loud…the one for others, I mean. But the other day I realized something new about my husband of 50 years…I am blessed to be married to a man who keeps no lists on me…he “keeps no records of my wrongs”.  What gracious love he extends to me.  Let me illustrate.
We were talking together about our marriage a few weeks ago and how blessed we are in so many ways…both Christians, both of us are responsible [he is much more so than me], both of us share same thoughts about how to relate to each other, etc.  Then he said, “And we don’t fight”.  I was stunned and actually “pulled out the list” I keep on myself!  “Oh, Babe, yes I do…I guess we don’t fight in true sense of the word but I sure lose my temper and recite my list, not of current wrongs but past wrongs.  Don’t you remember what I did just the other day”?  “When did you do that?  You don’t do that”, he replied. And then it hit me…a Holy Spirit punch…this man keeps no record of my wrongs!  How astounding, how fantastic, how other than me, how godly is this man.
Lord, thank you for my husband.  Please help me to stop repeating the “list” I keep on him and others.  Help me to be more like him for he is truly becoming more like Jesus every day. 
What is on your “list” for your Christian husband?  How effective has it been to pull them out on a regular basis?  What if you read down the list of what God’s love is like in 1 Corinthians 13?  How does yours match up?  Will you ask the Holy Spirit to increase your love not your criticism?  We can only do that with His help.
But in the midst of being severely chastised by the Holy Spirit, He still reminded me of His personal love for me…oh, my, what kind of God is this??  I am overwhelmed once again of His love demonstrated for me on the Cross called Calvary.  Read through 1 Corinthians 13, thinking of God’s love for you through His Son Jesus Christ.  It has brought me to worship…genuine worship!

“Anchored to His Throne of Grace”
Janice Gleason

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