“HOW MUCH DOES THIS WIFE LOVE YOU?”
That was me to my hubby just now! At first he said 5%, then 100%, and then I responded, “Wrong answer. Infinity percent!” And our son, Joshie, added in, “Infinity percent and beyond (HUGE SMILE)!” Our families are so important to God, guys! But we need Him to be at the center of every relationship, every decision, and every circumstance, with us continuously asking for His guidance and perspective. This is how He directs our paths on the most beautiful ways (ANOTHER SMILE)! It isn’t always pretty, but it is always the best! Wink! Wink!
And about God guiding us, I can’t get over how He had us to buy this home in this area almost 20 years ago. After looking for a house for months, hubby and I finally agreed. Honestly, this home has been such a blessing to our family! My sister-in-law casually told me one day in Nigeria that her daughters missed out on scholarship opportunities because they didn’t graduate from schools in the US. A few months later, the girls and I left my hubby and sons in Nigeria, and they were enrolled in a nearby high school. Long story short, this high school pushed my daughters extremely hard with advanced and college-level classes. The next thing we knew, they got great scholarships from top-notch universities in New York. This verse has been spot on our experience with God:
“I say this because I know what I am planning for you,” says the Lord. “I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you. I will give you hope and a good future.” – Jeremiah 29:11
Hubby and I were like little kids when we were purchasing this home! Like so excited and enthusiastic! That’s how God leads us. His answer is always a big “YES!” when He directs us in a particular direction. Doubt, uneasiness, and stress are His way of saying, ‘Hold up. Let’s rethink this before moving forward!’ And honestly, this house has been an enormous blessing for us, and I can go on and on with stories! That pic is of me running in our gorgeous neighborhood today, where I meet with God under my God tree. Even the planting of that tree was all orchestrated and planned out by God, especially for me! That’s the intimate love and attention He shows us!
So, involve God in your 1,000 daily decisions, seeking His perspective. Also, pay attention to the nudges from Him throughout the day. He was the one I felt saying to call hubby in Nigeria, not from a space of crazy lady and wanting to track his movements without the wifey around, but from a space of ‘Hey, do you know how much this wife loves and appreciates you?’ This message from Ceri has genuinely inspired me to show up as the best wife, momma, and person on behalf of God in the world:
“… You got to be kind. It reverts back to what they said Paul said in this verse. He says to make allowance for everyone for each other’s faults and forgive anyone who offends you. When you make allowance for something, you prepare yourself that people will fail you. Ain’t nobody perfect. And even when people mess up, you must give them that Grace (wiping the slate clean daily for others the way God does for us!!!).
Remember now, we cannot keep asking God for grace and mercy when we don’t extend His hand to each other. Whatever it is that God gives us, he provides us with the opportunity to reflect that onto our fellow man. Hence, he told us he made us in his own image. What He’s given to us, we have the opportunity to give to other people. Every day, we see the love that God has given us. From the moment we wake up and have our eyes open, we now have the opportunity and the ability to Grace others with what God has been so gracious with us. God helped us to wake up to see another day. He shows us love continuously. He tells us once we wake up, ‘Hey, that’s what I did for you; now go out there and do for others.’ And forgiveness is one of those things.
Remember, it’s something that I always used to preach here from when I first started preaching in this room. Forgiveness is something that God gave to you. He gave that to you. Forgiveness is for us. Nobody cares if you forgive them or not. Trust me on this one. Nobody cares. The only person to be affected by you not forgiving somebody is you. You’re going to walk around with a spiteful heart. You will walk around with hate in your eyes. You will be having sleepless nights because something this person did to you upset you. Do you think they care? They don’t care because they can repeatedly run into the same problems. They can keep running into people who either forgive them or who don’t. Do you think that like they are going to stop at you? Nah. It just doesn’t work that way.
The forgiveness is for us. The forgiveness is for us to say, ‘Hey, I forgive you.’ You don’t do it because we want God to forgive us. That isn’t just the reason. You have to honestly search deep down inside you and realize that whatever this is, I am bigger than this. I’m not gonna let this consume me. This isn’t a part of me. This isn’t me. This isn’t what I’m going to focus on. I need to focus on the word of God. I need to focus on loving other people. I need to devote my energy to something more important than what this person did to me. And that’s just what it is. So today, let’s remember to go out there with exactly what God asked us to do in these particular verses when He asks us to clothe ourselves today with love, mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God our Father.”