FAMILY IT! — Wednesday Family Devotional — “Average Love”

Supplies: Bible

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March just came roaring in, and that means students are getting ready for their final quarter of the school year.  (Did you hear that parents—only one quarter left until summer vacation!)  With the third quarter coming to a  close, report cards will be on their way shortly.  Many of you may already know exactly what it’s going to look like.  For others of you, this may be a wonderful surprise, or not.  Actually, though, I don’t want you to talk about what kind of grades you’re going to get.  Instead, I want you to talk about what kind of grades you want to get.  Now, for some of you students, those two things may be one in the same.  And for others of you, they may be…slightly further apart.  So forget reason or logic.  If you could fill in your own report card, if you could choose your own grades, what would you pick?  If you aren’t in school, pick the grades you would have wanted when you were a student.

This is one of those rare times when pretty much everybody had the same answer.  Yeah, yeah, I know those couple of you who said you want D’s.  Guess what?  I don’t believe you any more than your parents do!  That’s because, if there’s no obstacle, we all want the best.  We want A’s.  We want EXCELLENT and SUPER and TOP OF CLASS.  The only thing stopping us is the amount of effort it would take to get there.  It was the same when I was a student, it was the same when I was teaching public school, and it’s the same now that I have students of my own at home: no one wants C’s.  No one wants to be academically average.  Of course, by definition that’s where most people should land—in the “average” category, but we don’t want it to be us. The only time we celebrate C’s is when the content has been exceptionally challenging.  But even then, if we could choose, we would all choose A’s.  

READ

Even though that’s the goal with grades, it’s often the reverse when it comes to other areas of life, areas where being average is much more acceptable.  Have someone read Matthew 5:43-48 to see one specific example.

THINK

We’re wrapping up our time with Jesus on the mountainside today.  This whole time, Jesus has been calling us to be “above average,” to step up out of a C-lifestyle and find what A-living is all about. He’s hit on some tough areas, but here He really pulls out the common denominator for everyone: dealing with enemies.  

If you have contact with people at all, you will have contact with at least a few unpleasant people.  It’s a given.  And some of them are really excellent at being unpleasant, right?  I mean, A+ work!  These are the people we have no problem hating.  Ok, maybe hate is a little strong for some people.  But we are totally ok disliking being around them.  I mean, we love on our friends and our family members, and we dislike/avoid/complain about/hate on our unpleasant people (insert: enemies).  Isn’t that what everyone else does??

Jesus says, yes it is.  Which is exactly why it needs to change.  He calls us out and tells us that “average” isn’t worthy of the children of the One True God.  God’s “average” is to send the sunshine down on everybody, not just those with sunny dispositions; to pour out rains of renewal on the right and the wrong.  Jesus is asking us to stand up to a new level in our relationships with people, to rewire what’s “average”, what’s “normal” for the Church.  We’re gonna love our neighbors and LOVE our enemies.  We’re gonna lift up in prayer the people who go out of their way to make us miserable.  Hate and spite?  Nope, we’re not settling for that anymore.  LOVE is the new “average”—our new standard response to everyone.  We’re choosing A+ living when we choose to be like God!

APPLY

How does that play out in your life right now?  With all this talk about enemies, there are certainly some names and faces circling around in your head.  Spend time talking as a family about those people in your world.  How can each of you start LOVING those people?  What can you do specifically to make LOVE your average daily response?  At school?  In your house with each other?  In the neighborhood?  How can you help each other be successful at this A+ lifestyle?  Close your time together praying for the people you mentioned (a GREAT way to love them).

PRAY

Jesus, You have turned our perspective upside down.  We’re turning hate into love.  Sometimes it seems like love is too small a response.  Remind us that it was the power of Your love that saved the world!  May that power continue through us!  In Your Name we pray, Amen.

REPLY

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