LEARNING about LOVE
Daily Devotional
Daily Devotional
Cultivate different facets of love each day this month.
February 3: Familial Love
- Scripture: Ephesians 6:1-4 – Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother”—this is the first commandment with a promise— 3 “so that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” 4 And, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
- Reflection: One of the images for our relationship with Holy Love is that of parent and child, or brothers and sisters. Family is a model of love, at its best.
Admittedly, most of us live in complicated families with a spectrum of dynamics, from healthy love to dysfunctional or absent love. Some of us have been harmed, or have hurt others. Some of us grieve. Many of us also nurture family ties that support wellbeing.
Families also come in many shapes. In the Gospels, images of families range from genetic families, adoptive familes, extended families, and chosen families, such as communities of faith to which we belong. Our circles of family connection grow wider, and include those we recognize as kindred through spiritual connections. These can mean friends, colleagues, mentors, partners and others that come into our lives and become family through our emotional and psychological bonds.
Explore the dynamics of loving and respecting family members, including the responsibility to nurture and protect. Who has been a model of such love for you? Perhaps they’re blood kin. Perhaps they’re friends or mentors who have become your adopted family. - Spiritual Practice Prompt: Write a note of appreciation to a family member, or a friend who has become like family to you.
SONGS:
- A Prayer for my Family by Justin Bieber: https://youtu.be/M16XQD_WKTI?si=EYfd-rh3guS70sLT
I was once waiting in an airport next to a woman whose six-year-old daughter suffered from a rare heart defect that could take her life at any moment. In spite of mounting medical bills and the pressures of raising both a child with special needs and another younger daughter, the woman said she and her husband planned to adopt a boy from Ethiopia later that year.
“What made you want to grow your family in the midst of all this turmoil?” I asked.
“Why did the Jews have children after the Holocaust?” she asked back. “Why do women keep trying after multiple miscarraiges? It’s our way of shaking our fists at the future and saying, you know what?–we will be hopeful; things will get better; you can’t scare us after all. Having children is, ultimately, an act of faith.” – Rachel Held-Evans
“What made you want to grow your family in the midst of all this turmoil?” I asked.
“Why did the Jews have children after the Holocaust?” she asked back. “Why do women keep trying after multiple miscarraiges? It’s our way of shaking our fists at the future and saying, you know what?–we will be hopeful; things will get better; you can’t scare us after all. Having children is, ultimately, an act of faith.” – Rachel Held-Evans
February 3 Daily Devotional