Leawood, Kansas, United States - The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Monday, 25 August 2014 "Love covers all offenses"

Leawood, Kansas, United States - The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Monday, 25 August 2014 "Love covers all offenses"
Daily Scripture: Proverbs 10:6 Blessings accrue on a good and honest life,
    but the mouth of the wicked is a dark cave of abuse.
7 A good and honest life is a blessed memorial;
    a wicked life leaves a rotten stench.
8 A wise heart takes orders;
    an empty head will come unglued.
9 Honesty lives confident and carefree,
    but Shifty is sure to be exposed.
10 An evasive eye is a sign of trouble ahead,
    but an open, face-to-face meeting results in peace.
11 The mouth of a good person is a deep, life-giving well,
    but the mouth of the wicked is a dark cave of abuse.
12 Hatred starts fights,
    but love pulls a quilt over the bickering.
Reflection Questions:
With so many focused books and resources, we sometimes begin to think that marriage and family life is a unique, specialized field. In some ways, perhaps—yet the Bible often reminds us that the values that guide all healthy interactions apply, if anything, more strongly to our families. The principles in these seven Hebrew proverbs speak clearly, if not specifically, to family life.
Verses 6-11 all contrast people who are honest, trustworthy and upright with those who deceive, who reject wisdom in order to pursue their own ways and who do violence, if not physically then emotionally. In what ways have you felt the difference between marriages and families that embody the "righteous" attitudes and speech listed here with those torn by the "foolish" or "wicked" qualities?
"Love covers all offenses" in verse 12 used the same Hebrew word as verse 11's "the mouth of the wicked conceals violence." Here, said commentator Paul Koptak, it meant "the covering that promotes healed relationships…Hatred stirs up, love smoothes over. Discord and dissension spring from hatred, but love nurtures harmony." When has love healed in your life, not by ignoring a problem, but by being the glue that points beyond the problem to an essential connection worth preserving?
Today's Prayer:
God of love, make me wise and righteous in the best and broadest sense of those words. Give me a heart from which flow words that honestly help and heal in the lives of those I love most. Amen.
Insight from Melanie Hill
Melanie Hill is the Visitor Connections Program Director in Resurrection’s Guest Services Ministry.
When I received the writing assignment this week I have to admit that at first I was stumped. What do I have to say about love that hasn’t been said already, most likely much more eloquently? It’s the topic of epic romances and beautiful ballads. It can be used to describe the transcendent affection of God–and to share my feelings about tacos? This word “love,” perhaps one of the most overused words in our language, relates the height of human emotion and at the same time the affection for the mundane. How to come up with a definition?
Like with most situations in my life, when in doubt I ask my kids. And so it was on a Saturday morning on our way to a soccer game that started entirely too early that my 10-year-old son reminded me what love is truly supposed to look like. I asked him, “How do you know when someone loves you?” Without hesitation he said, “When they take care of you and nurture you. When they’re there when things are good and bad.” I was a little stunned. First, because despite all my faults as a parent somehow my son understands what love is, and this is a very good thing for me as his mom. And second, because he nailed it. Real love is an action, not a feeling or emotion we have. The emotion of love ebbs and flows over time, but real love makes a choice to be present. Real love changes us. Real love calls us to a radically different life. One of my favorite authors, Brennan Manning, talks about it like this:
“The gospel is absurd and the life of Jesus is meaningless unless we believe that He lived, died, and rose again with but one purpose in mind: to make brand-new creation. Not to make people with better morals but to create a community of prophets and professional lovers, men and women who would surrender to the mystery of the fire of the Spirit that burns within, who would live in ever greater fidelity to the omnipresent Word of God, who would enter into the center of it all, the very heart and mystery of Christ, into the center of the flame that consumes, purifies, and sets everything aglow with peace, joy, boldness, and extravagant, furious love. This, my friend, is what it really means to be a Christian.”
This extravagant, furious love is what covers all wrongs. This is the love that took my place on the cross to cover my wrongs. And this is the love that invites me into the mission of God of loving others; the love that invites me to become a professional lover. So this week as we meditate on the words of our mouths let us not just love each other in word but in action, so that others may believe our words. (And while we’re at it, maybe find another word to describe my affection for tacos!)
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