{"id":20732,"date":"2018-11-20T09:38:10","date_gmt":"2018-11-20T14:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=20732"},"modified":"2018-11-21T08:32:06","modified_gmt":"2018-11-21T13:32:06","slug":"vintage-christmas-matters-of-the-heart-part-2-caring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=20732","title":{"rendered":"Vintage Christmas – Matters of the Heart – Part 2 – Caring"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

[Today’s blog is Part 2 of 3 – excerpts from a talk given at an ISBC Women’s Ministry<\/a> Holiday Dinner with the theme: Vintage Christmas – Matters of the Heart<\/em>. See Part 1 – Capacity<\/em> – here<\/a> and Part 3 – Constancy<\/em> – here<\/a>.]<\/p>\n

We’re talking about matters of the heart – the kind of character our Godly mothers, grandmothers, and great-aunts demonstrated…that we learned and want to pass onto next generations.<\/p>\n

From building capacity, we can move to that character trait of genuine caring. Caring that comes from a heart full of love.<\/strong> We all love\u2026it\u2019s part of our nature. This kind of caring isn\u2019t the love that we in our human effort alone can make happen. This is a love that comes from Jesus to us\u2026and then through us to others.<\/p>\n

Every morning, I wake up to this view \u2013 my bedside table and the wall beyond it. \"\"<\/a>A framed print hangs right where I see it first thing \u2013 a little cherub nestled in an open heart with the words inscribed: \u201cHeart full of love\u201d. A dear friend gave this to me before we went overseas. Like other keepsakes from so many of our friends and loved ones, it reminds me of their caring, and inspires me to be and do likewise.<\/p>\n

The Bible is full of calls to love. God is perfect in His own love for us and He then commands us to care for one another. Through every season of our lives. The earliest God-fearers mentioned in the Old Testament were taught to 1) love God and 2) love each other as they would themselves. Jesus also taught these two very same greatest commandments.<\/p>\n

The night before He was crucified, in a room with his closest friends and followers, Jesus took that commandment up a notch: \u201cA new commandment I give to you: that you love one another just as I have loved you; you also are to love one another.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Without Jesus filling us with such love, we could never even fathom how to love others like He loves us. Laying down our lives for one another as He laid his life down for us.<\/p>\n

It is obvious how we all benefit from such great love received by Him and lavished on others. During that last supper<\/a> together, Jesus and those dear to Him, He went on to give one more incentive to love – one more world-shaking incentive. \u201cBy this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Photo Credit: The Fellowship Site<\/a><\/p>\n

As we love God, and receive His love, we are moved to keep our eyes on Him and allow Him a place in our lives to display His love in all kinds of ways\u2026we can care for others as He cares for us.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe love because He first loved us.\u201d – <\/strong>1 John 4:19<\/a><\/p>\n

In all the seasons of our lives, we deal with people not like us, people we consider haters or spoilers. People who hate us so we are tempted to hate them right back. There are also those people who are just plain indifferent to us or to those we love. Lastly, there are those who are stranger to us. We don\u2019t know them; we don\u2019t need to know them, we think. Whether we believe we are this way or not… how we act toward others is telling.<\/p>\n

We were living overseas when 9\/11 happened. We came home a year later, and we discovered an America that had suffered so much loss. It was like we as a people had circled our wagons. Even in the South, people didn\u2019t make eye contact, or chat with store clerks or strangers on the street, or generally engage people they didn\u2019t know. It seemed just easier, less risky, to be home with just a few people. Us four and no more, right?<\/p>\n

Jesus calls us to care for those closest to us, those easy to love, those who care for us. It\u2019s a joy to love them. His call goes much farther, though\u2026for our own sake and that of all we encounter.<\/p>\n

God calls us to care\u2026to love\u2026as He does.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is the largest sincerity check of our lives. The life of the Christ-follower is a life of love\u2026of deep caring\u2026of caring beyond comfort.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We have all heard the response \u201cWell, it\u2019s not about you.\u201d In our flesh, we totally want it to be about us\u2026but\u2026<\/p>\n

When we make the substance of our lives about ourselves, our lives get very small.<\/strong> They seem big to us because of all the responsibilities we carry; all the cool stuff we get to be about. However\u2026what could our lives be like if we cared, truly cared, about others\u2026any others, all others?<\/p>\n

\u201cTo fill up on God, you begin to have more than enough love for others and yourself because the God Who IS love is operating on the inside of you.\u201d<\/strong> – Cassia Glass<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Photo Credit: Jill E. McCormick<\/a><\/p>\n

We can be the people through whom the world sees Jesus. Because of our love, our care, for each other.<\/p>\n

This kind of caring is costly. It cost Jesus everything. Whatever the cost is to each of us, young or old, we gain so much more than we give. A 19th<\/sup> century missionary, Amy Carmichael<\/a>, spent her whole life serving orphans in India, cast-off little girls who would come to know God\u2019s love\u2026through Amy. She had this to say about what caring costs and what we gain in caring:<\/p>\n

\u201cLet us not be surprised when we have to face difficulties. When the wind blows hard on a tree, the roots stretch and grow the stronger, let it be so with us. Let us not be weaklings, yielding to every wind that blows, but strong in spirit to resist.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Photo Credit: AZQuotes<\/a><\/p>\n

I want to just stop right here a moment. You\u2026you women right here have shown yourselves to be this kind of Christ-follower. You have built capacity for God to show up through you. You love through all kinds of hard. You know from God\u2019s Word that our battle is not against one another\u2026the Evil One wants to break us and divide us and tarnish what the world sees of God in us. You stay strong, Dear Ones\u2026and keep tending the embers of love, in the midst of this hard place. God will keep showing up.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Photo Credit: QuoteFancy, John Groberg<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Today’s blog is Part 2 of 3 – excerpts from a talk given at an ISBC Women’s Ministry Holiday Dinner with the theme: Vintage Christmas – Matters of the Heart. See Part 1 – Capacity – here and Part 3 – Constancy – here.] We’re talking about matters of the heart – the kind of … Continue reading Vintage Christmas – Matters of the Heart – Part 2 – Caring<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1628,813,1705,1618,3395,2307,147,3208,1265,3580,50,903,3394,18,2819,5130,263,795,2611,1348,1437,870,3751,3752,719,761,789,887,1456,32,203],"tags":[6648,1640,1798,6646,419,1846,3005,6647,1641,6650,1835,6649,1188,3069,211,1189,6644],"class_list":["post-20732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-character","category-christmas","category-conversations","category-courage","category-disciplines","category-emotions","category-family-2","category-finishing-strong","category-friends","category-generosity","category-god","category-grace","category-habits","category-jesus","category-kindness","category-legacy","category-lives-full-of-god","category-love-2","category-love-your-neighbor","category-marginalized-people","category-mothers","category-neighbors","category-purpose","category-purpose-in-life","category-reconciliationforgiveness","category-redeeming-restoring","category-relationships","category-remembering","category-steadfast-love","category-walk-with-god","category-word-of-god","tag-amy-carmichael","tag-capacity","tag-caring","tag-cassia-glass","tag-character","tag-christmas","tag-constancy","tag-genuine-caring","tag-heart-full-of-love","tag-isbc-womens-ministry","tag-jesus","tag-john-groberg","tag-last-supper","tag-legacy","tag-love","tag-love-one-another","tag-vintage-christmas"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pauPAB-5oo","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20732"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20772,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20732\/revisions\/20772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}