Be Nurturing

'...Love each other as I have loved you.' John 15:12 NIV

"Love each other as I have loved you," That's a big command. It's hard to be nurturing when your nature doesn't lean that way. Some of us are more ruff on the outside than others and it takes some work to love others as Christ loves them. But this is something we must work on in our lives because it is a direct command from Christ. When Jesus said, 'Love each other,' the Greek word for 'love' used has a sense of self-sacrificing nurture. Think of a mother and her child: her love is constant and her greatest desire for her child is to thrive. You say, 'Isn't this the kind of love people should get at home, not from me?' Truth is, beneath the facade, some people in your life desperately need to be nurtured. And they'll be influenced most by those who make them feel best about themselves. One leader writes: 'Many people are very close to my heart because they believed in me when I didn't believe in myself. They listened to me without condemnation and loved me unconditionally, even when I wasn't very lovable. Without them, I wouldn't have possessed the hope I needed to keep pursuing my dream.' Now, you can't be like the little girl who came home from church and announced, 'I want to be like the man who stood up in the pulpit today.' Delighted, her mom said, 'You want to go into the ministry?' 'No,' she replied, 'I want to tell people what to do!' Hello! Some of us want to be authority figures so we can correct people and give them our so-called 'constructive criticism'. Most folks don't need a critic, they need a cheerleader. When you nurture them, they will welcome you to speak into their life-and they will listen. Goethe said, 'Correction does much, but encouragement does much more.' So think encouraging words and speak encouraging words. 'Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, but a good word makes it glad.' (Proverbs 12:25 NKJV) You are loved...