‘Jonathan asked David to repeat his promise of love for him. 1 Samuel 20:17 NCV
Hoping to save their relationship, a woman dragged her husband to see a counsellor. During their session, the counsellor asked him, ‘Do you tell your wife you love her?’ The man growled, ‘I told her when we got married I loved her—and that if I ever changed my mind, I’d let her know.’
Seriously, people know you love them when you show them and when you tell them. The relationship between Jonathan and David was so strong that they were willing to lay down their lives for one another. Yet the Bible says, ‘Jonathan asked David to repeat his promise of love for him.’
When you lose a loved one, you realise that relationships are much more important than possessions. We tend to forget that, in our scramble to get to the top of the heap. There is something about knowing you have a short time to live that radically alters your perspective. It makes you want to fill every precious moment with important words you have left unsaid and important things you have neglected to do. Don’t let self–centredness, ambition or religious zeal stop you from expressing your love to the people in your life who need to hear it. Make that call. Send that text or email. Buy those flowers. Say, ‘I love you.’
Most times, people don’t need our opinions and solutions; when we give them our love and support, they usually find their own solutions. Yes, it’s important to fulfil your God–given assignment in life, but not at the cost of the people who really matter. Three little words people never get tired of hearing are ‘I love you.’ It’s not complicated—it just requires thought.
SoulFood:
Ephesians 5:21–33 ()
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21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
The Word for Today is authored by Bob and Debby Gass and published under licence from UCB International Copyright ©