“Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.” Colossians 3:12-14

Put on Love

I grew up in a very contentious home. My parents were extremely negative toward each other and judgmental toward others. It is my belief that the old saying “children learn what they live” proves to be very true. I don’t want to blame everything on my parents but I found my action toward others reminiscent of their conflicts as I grew into a young lady. I gossiped, was unforgiving, and I thought the sun rose and set on how my hair looked, how my makeup was applied, and on my clothing. My relationships with family grew to become quarrelsome.

You understand by now that was all about me. I was blessed to marry a good man who was (and is) very forgiving of my inadequacies and fortunately for me always joked around. I, of course, grew more and more discontent. I knew I was one of God’s elect, so I decided to do a word search through my concordance on the sins of the tongue.

Through my word search I found that it was ME (of all people!) who was the one who was malcontent. I then did a search on love and found Colossians 3:12-14. I decided to put that scripture to the test, so to speak. I literally dressed myself with each of those attributes as I got myself ready for the day and I reminded myself during the day that I needed to keep them on. It was hard to break old habits but I eventually was able to sever many of them. Verse 14 says to put on love and when I do that, then I can attain all of the other characteristics. All of this takes place when we yield to the Holy Spirit’s work in us.

As you might realize, my relationships have significantly improved with others whether tey be my brothers and sisters in Christ or those in the secular world.

Father God, we give You all of the praise and all of the glory for Your eternal guidance as we walk Your straight and narrow path. You are the God of our salvation and our guiding light. We pray in Your holy and blessed name, Jesus.