Wednesday, April 22, 2009

The essentials for life: Loving God and loving others

Our lives are full of a lot of stuff….school, hobbies, sport, work, church, careers, study, earning money, paying bills, finding work plus a truckload of other things. To check out what fills up your life look at your calendar or diary and bank accounts or credit card statements.

Now because God has made us all different we are involved in different things and have different likes…our lives will be filled with different activities, things and people. For instance at school some find maths exciting, others English, some love sport, some music, some reading and some drama. With all these differences, what an exciting mural God has created of life. What would life be if everyone liked the same things? Image if everyone followed Collingwood Football Club now that would be a strange God…

And our differences extend to how we relate to Jesus. In his book Sacred Pathways Gary Thomas highlights this; for instance some of people are wired to need routine, whilst others need quietness, others need to be very active, others relate better to Jesus when they are able to use their range of senses, others when they are confronting what is wrong and others when they are outside. (If you would like to discover more about the different ways of relating to Jesus, feel free to contact me.)

Now the challenge for us is how to live together with our differences. Fortunately, when people were trying to work out what was important Jesus highlighted that the key to living with others was to realise that everything we are involved in needs to be in harmony with loving God and loving others. There is no exception. These are the Greatest Commandments. Open your bibles to Mark 12:28-34 to discover more. No matter what we are doing, we should consider how we can love God and love others.

Some things to think about and share as a family
· When have you experienced someone loving God and loving others?
· How does loving God and loving others change how you do things and relate to others?
· In what areas of your life do you find it easy to love God and love others?
· And in what areas of your life do you find it a challenge to love God and love others? (ask God for help!!)

Throughout this term we will be exploring living a life of loving God and loving others in chapel, please join us if you can, ask your children and grandchildren what they have discovered

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