What I've Learned... from God... about myself

March 4th, 2007

So, this isn’t really about my kids, but it’s something I thought about this morning in church. We were singing a really repetitive song called “Be Glorified.” It basically repeats those two words over and over and over again throughout the song. I get bored with those really repetitive songs. I kind of have this idea of God or Jesus standing right in front of me, and after a couple times telling him “Be glorified”, I think he pretty much gets the point. I imagined how silly it would seem if Derrick and I were standing in the kitchen and I turned to him and said “I adore you. I adore you. I adore you…” and so on. If I really wanted to emphasize a point, I might repeat something a couple times, but then he would say “ok, you adore me. Got it.” But what he would really want is for me to ACT like I adore him.

And then it occurred to me that, while we all appreciate being told that somebody loves us, and we like to hear people say nice things about us, we all really want people to act like they love us. It would be pretty crappy if I went around TELLING my husband that I loved him and adored him and thought he was the best husband in the world, if I didn’t TREAT him that way. What if I went around saying “I love you” all the time but treated him badly, put him at the bottom of my list of priorities, never valued his opinion or feelings, never thought about what he would want or appreciate when making decisions? If I never ACTED like I loved him, he wouldn’t believe me when I said the words. So as we repeat “be glorified” over and over and over again, I imagine that God is listening to us, and saying, “ok, then go glorify me.” He wants us to live our lives in a way that SHOWS that we mean the words we sing to him.

I’m not knocking repetitive songs. I usually get bored repeating the same words over and over, but some people like it, and that’s ok. And, songs are different than words. They’re more like poems. Somebody might write a love song for their lover, and it might be repetitive, but would also be very beautiful, and a true act of love. The point is, I hope I am ACTING like I love God, in the day-to-day, as much as I SAY I love him.


NEW POSTS WITH PICTURES BELOW... KEEP SCROLLING!