Monday, April 28, 2014

Bible Study: When love is more important

Romans 14:21
John 13:12-17
My daughters truly love each other but they still fight like other siblings. The two older girls treat their baby sister like a doll. A treasured, princess doll, but a doll nonetheless. I am constantly reminding them that she is also a person and needs to be given the same respect that they want to receive. Don't just pick her up from behind and carry her to wherever you want her to be when she'd rather stay where she was and play there. Princess is amazingly patient with them, far beyond what I would expect of a 10 month old who can't use words to communicate yet or fight back when her sister does something she doesn't like.
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Sometimes we need to stand up for the truth despite the opposition. But sometimes love is more important. Sometimes whether we are right or wrong isn't as important as respecting the other individual where they are at. We might have the better solution, we might know a holier path, we might have been gifted with some wisdom which the other person could benefit from. Yet if that person isn't ready to hear what we have to say, our approach might be just as disrespectful as grabbing a person from behind and moving them forcefully to a new location. They might experience our efforts to help as being as disrespectful as that of a child treating a baby sister like a doll rather than another human being.

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