Acting With Love, Even When It's Hard

Scripture of the week: 1 Peter 2:19-25

Have you ever tried really hard to be nice and to do the right thing? Of course you have, we all try to do that, don’t we. But can you think of a time when you tried to be nice and do the right thing and someone got mad at you anyway for the things you said or did?

Maybe you were asking them to make changes that they didn’t want to make. Or maybe someone else told them lies that made you look like the bad guy. It probably made you feel a lot of different emotions. You might have felt angry, or hurt, or just sad. Did you want to get back at them somehow for hurting you? After all, you’re only human, right?

Well, let’s think about this for a minute. Jesus never, ever did anything wrong but he was still treated very badly. He was arrested, beat up, humiliated, and eventually was killed, all because he was doing the right thing and refused to stop doing it.

Jesus knew that we should treat everyone the same because we are all children of God. No one is less of a person than anyone else. We all belong to God and are loved.

Peter, who was one of Jesus’ disciples, wrote in a letter that we need to keep doing what is right, even if we get in trouble for doing it. Wait a minute, what?

Let’s say you are on your way to school when you see another kid you don’t know fall down and really hurt their leg. This kid can’t get up. Should you stop to help him get up and let him hold on to you so he can get back home or to school, even though it will make you late for school?

Doing the right thing means you are acting with love and sometimes acting with love can be the hardest thing to do.

Sometimes we still make bad choices ( remember that part about being human ). But again in that letter from Peter he reminds us that even if we mess up, Jesus always welcomes us back. There is always a place for us with Jesus.

Please pray with me:

Loving God, help us to love one another the way that you love us. Help us to see the ways to act with love and kindness in everything that we do, and forgive us when we mess up and forget to be loving. Amen