Wednesday April 6, 2011
Theme: Scream-Free Family
Weekend Music links on iTunes: Glory to God Forever, God With Us, Attention, 'til I See You
Read: Galatians 5:22-23
Think: The common reading of Galatians 5:22-23 is that Paul provides something of a laundry list of traits that will become increasingly evident in the life of a Christian maturing in faith. Clearly, we should all have a goal of seeing each of these items growing in our lives. But there is one slight twist of interpretation that provides additional insight. Because the word ‘fruit’ is singular in the original text, some suggest that Paul is identifying only one fruit of the spirit – love. Everything else on the list is a component of love, something required for a full expression of real love.
The sermon this weekend was all about building healthier family relationships. Those of us who are parents want to love our children. Often, especially when our kids are young, we express this love by trying to control their behavior or their environment. While that may be appropriate at times, it’s not enough in the long run. Nor is it the right way to treat a spouse. As Pastor Ben reminded us, ‘you can’t control your others, but you can control yourself’. In order for us to have good family relationships, we need to worry less about controlling others, and more about self-control. We need to conquer our own temper and our own tongue.
This brings us back to Paul’s one fruit of the spirit, love. We don’t learn self-control so that we can then show love to our family; self-control is not a pre-condition of love. Self-control is a part of that love. If you want to love your family better, practice self-control.
Do: Exert some self-control today in an intentional way. Skip dessert, smile when you don’t feel like it, or withhold a sarcastic comment.
Pray: God, I do love my family, and I want to love them better. If self-control is a part of love, I want to learn better self-control. Show me how, Lord, and help me. Amen.
The eDevotional is written each week by a team of volunteers from Timberlake Church.