Recently, the weight of being an adult has felt heavy indeed; with my wife Linda's upcoming surgery and all that goes along with it, somehow its not much fun being an adult. So, when I read this, it made me remember my carefree days of youth. Not the teenage years, but before I was twelve, before girls. Yet, throughout my entire life, there is a unifying word... and that word is love. Here is the greatest commentary I know on the subject and it deserves to be read again and again and again...
1 Corinthians, Chapter 13
4 Love is patient and is kind; love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud, 5 doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil; 6 doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with. 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; 10 but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with. 11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known. 13 But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.
A child is loved by its family and then returns that love to a spouse and subsequently to their children. And the cycle continues and grows in a wonderful manner. Responsibility, adult thinking and action are just part of the cycle, which is grand beyond our wildest imagination. I wrote today's post solely for myself, because I need to remember that although it may seem nice to return to the carefree days of youth, it is God's plan for me to conform to his will for me. So... bring on whatever the future holds in store for me. I only ask of myself that I remember the love God has given to me, so that as a good steward I might expand its ever growing cycle!!!