Day 21: Cultivating Love and Respect Within My Home

God made us for relationships! The truth is that our world is more crowded than ever, but also that loneliness is more rampant than ever. Relationships erode, families are disintegrating, and marriages are dissolving. What makes relationships meaningful? When Jesus was cornered on a question about the most important command, He replied that the law and prophets could be summed up in two relationships. The first relationship is with God and the second with other people, and what made those relationships full of meaning is LOVE! Love is what makes our relationship with God meaningful and our relationship with other people meaningful!
Read John 13:34-35 & 1 John 4:7-11

Q: What is a proper definition of love as defined by Jesus? How has He modeled and demonstrated His love?

Q: How has God designed us to need love? How does God Himself (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) exist in a perfect relationship of love?

Q: How does your view of yourself affect your ability to love your children/your parents? If someone is having trouble loving others, what should be the first place for them to start?

Read 1 Corinthians 13:1-8

Q: What stands out to you about Paul’s description of love? Anything missing in his description that you would normally associate with love?

Q: How is love correlated with respect? How are they different?

Today’s Prayer: Heavenly Father, help me to cultivate love and respect within my home. May the example of you be our definition for love within our home. May your love always motivate and inspire me to love my family members, especially in times when it is not easy to do so.