Romans 15:5
“May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had.”
Parenting is hard. Quite hard. To be honest, so often I feel like I struggle balancing it all and as a result, I land somewhere between not good enough and far from perfect.
But I love how this verse meets me right there in between the not good enough zone and the far from perfect zone. In this verse the Apostle Paul tells us two things. First, he is gently reminding us that God is the only one who is able to give us the endurance and encouragement we each personally need in order to accomplish all the things of the day. If this was all it said, it would be great right there. Honestly, I need all the endurance and encouragement I can get. I need it by the bucket full. Every day I need it. But the verse goes on to point out one of the greatest characteristics of God, which is He is capable of helping you have the same attitude towards others that He has toward you.
He loves you so deeply. He loves you so much that He gives you the endurace you need to get through all the things. And He loves you so much that He encourages you even when you feel like you fell short, or aren’t enough, or far from perfect. But He also can help you have that same kind of attitude of love toward others.
Why does this matter? Well as I said in the beginning, parenting is so difficult. But thankfully, God can help me and give me the ability to show my tiny humans enduring love and encouragement, even when they are all crying at the same time, and pulling at my hair, and making every single task monumentally more difficult.
If I am being honest, I am sure that I have given God the parenting blues on several occasions. But He would never call it the parenting blues. He loves me so deeply and His love endures forever for me. Instead of calling it the parenting blues when I am crying, and pulling at his hair, and making every single task monumentally more difficult, He lovingly encourages me through it.
If He can do this for us, then as Paul reminds us in this verse, He can also give us the ability to do this toward others. This is exactly what I need most days. Most days, I can’t do it on my own because as I said, I am far from perfect, but God meets me right where I am in His steadfast ways and goes with me by loving me, equipping me, and encouraging me.
So when you hear this verse next time, I truly hope you can remember, not only are you deeply loved by a God whose love endures forever, but also He has given you the power to love the people put in your life just like He loves them.
If you are looking for some practical ways to do this, check out this week’s post on Practical Ways to be the Hand and Feet of Jesus link titled, Love Them Anyway, Stories to Inspire and Pull at Your Heartstrings titled, Icky Worms, and the Prayer of the Week titled, Help Me to Love Them Anyway.