Matthew 15:36 "And he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave thanks, and brake them, and gave to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude."
Being away from my family in Utah this Thanksgiving I knew would be hard. After all this first year away will pose all kinds of new situations. But we also knew when we moved here there was purpose for it happening, a purpose for God. While we don't always know what that purpose is, Christ is always discussing and conversing with God about us when we pray. With prayer comes action. I am thankful for prayer and the gift of love this season. For I am in need of both every day!
This year I will be learning to love outside of my family. To begin we have invited a family over for Thanksgiving dinner that is in need of some relief due to stress and a tight schedule. Charlie and I felt so inclined as to find a family such as this in our church body and offer them into our home - of course God pointed us right away to them but little did I know how much it would mean to them for us to do so. Iin fact, there was such an overwhelming feeling that came when the mother of the family and I realized that both of our prayers were answered at the same time. I can't even explain in words how awesome God works. My first experience in this type of love was joyful.
Today the spirit has laid two thoughts on my heart that I am now pondering on. They came to me while driving home after Beth Moore's bible study today. I am challenged by them. She talked about living life on purpose - so it got me to thinking about loving on purpose. Love is what brings life.
It has always been so easy for me to love my family, but I never knew how to love those that I was not related with. Well since we moved out here I knew I would be stretched for His glory, this was confirmed to me prior to arriving. Knowing there may not be a possibility of my blood family to come here, I prayed about it and had faith He had a plan.
Christ teaches us with his example from the verse above by giving to others and also thanking. We are all family and we ought to love one another as He has loved us. The first thing is to open my heart up for this desire and of course He knew the timing I would need for it. Living life on purpose means loving on purpose. I want to live and love on purpose just as Christ did. What else is this life for?
