WholeHearted Home: Love is Kind

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The aged women likewise that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;

That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,

To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

~Titus 2:3-5~

Love is kind. Jesus is love and He is kind.

Reflecting back over the years of being a wife, I can tell you that I haven't always been kind. Oh, I thought I was. I thought I was 'justified' when I failed in my love towards my husband, as certainly 'it was his fault!'

Or was it?!

The sooner we learn as women that there isn't anything 'good' in us, the better!! We are as filthy rags and without Christ dwelling in us, there is nothing but SELFrighteousness in our righteousness.

"I am the vine,

ye are the branches:

He that abideth in me,

and I in him,

the same bringeth forth much fruit:

for without me ye can do

NOTHING!!"

~John 15:5~

When I thought of writing about 'Love is Kind', I thought about how we, as women are to be in God's school, learning to be that Titus Two, older woman.

You might be in your twenties or thirties...When I was in my early thirties, I looked around for that wonderful Titus Two woman this verse talks about. I was homeschooling a bunch of little children, struggling to get it all done, fighting the clutter monster, and simply had no idea how to carry out my role in our marriage!!

All the older women I knew worked. They were all busy enjoying their hobbies and had no idea of the role God had placed in their life. I decided that I needed to become that Titus Two women, but soon I realized it would take until I was 90 and I still wouldn't have 'arrived!!'

But I could try!!

Becoming 'kind' is becoming like Christ. It is all about sacrifice and the cross-life. It is NOT about being perfect.

If I live until I am ninety, I won't be perfect, but I can learn to walk humbly before my God, sacrificially laying down my life for my husband, first, and then my children.

I beseech you therefore,

brethren, by the mercies of God,

that ye present your bodies a,

living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,

which is your reasonable service.

And be not conformed to this world:

but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,

that ye may prove what is that good,

and acceptable,

and perfect,

will of God.

~Romans 12:1 & 2~

You cannot be kind if you are not good on the inside where no one can see.

What is in your heart, will surely come out in your words someday. You know...after the honeymoon, after that sweet baby grows bigger and exhibits a sin nature (shocking!!) and you get a little edgy...or very edgy!!

Being a living sacrifice in everyday life could mean:

Cheerfully doing the laundry or dishes.
It could be finding that urgent paper your husband needed pronto presto without even a thought of complaint.
It could be wrapping yourself around your husband in bed tonight!!

I have been reading the book, The Love Dare (re-reading and re-reading the first few chapters is more like it) and here is what it says:

"Kindness is love in action.

If patience is how love reacts in order to minimize a negative circumstance,

kindness is how love acts to maximize a positive circumstance.

Patience avoids a problem;

kindness creates a blessing.

One is preventive,

the other proactive.

These two sides of love

are the cornerstones

on which many of the other attributes...

are built.

Love makes you kind.

And kindness makes you likeable.

When you're kind,

people want to be around you.

They see you as being good to them

and good for them."

(The Love Dare, p. 9)

Just remember, that it is the transforming power of the Lord Jesus Christ working in your life that makes it possible to really love your husband. It isn't that he is so difficult to love, but because we are filled with selfishness and pride which gets in the way. This is a journey of learning to be a living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable to God. Learning to love our husbands is living and abiding in the Vine, abiding in Jesus, daily. It is the story of our journey of transformation to holiness because Christ lives in you (does He??)