Laying Your Life Down

"There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends."  John 15:13

Since today is Valentines Day and God's been teaching me so much about what love really looks like from His standards I decided to continue with the theme of "Love" for today's post. I read this verse today, as it's the verse of the day in my Bible app, and was reminded of how much God loves that He sent Jesus to literally lay down His life for us.  There is NO greater love than the love God has for us!  Then I started thinking further about this verse.  It's very unlikely that we will ever come to a situation in our lives where we have to choose to die for someone (and for those who have had that situation come up and chose to give their lives, they are an example of true Godlike love) but there are many other ways we can choose to "lay down our lives" for people.  And this is what I want to discuss in today's post. How can we go about laying down our lives for others? This kind of laying down your life for someone else means you sacrifice something that means something to you for the good or betterment of someone else.  "Don't be selfish; don't try to impress others .  Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves.  Don't look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others too."  Philippians 2:3-4
How do we do this?  What does it look like in reality?  For starters it looks like this...my husband just came up to me asking for a neck rub in the middle of my writing and while I selfishly wanted to continue with my writing, while I was in the groove, I stopped what I was doing and did what he was wanting.  (I mean how could I ignore an obvious practical example God was giving me at that very moment?!)  As parents we sacrifice to give our children "things we never had"  but do we ever just spend time with them, getting to know these little people God has entrusted us to love, raise and nurture?  Often times it's not running them here and there to activities or buying them something that will make the biggest lasting impressions on them as they grow into adults.  It will be the quality, undistracted time we spent with them, letting them be themselves and giving them a safe place to share their hearts and minds.  This can be something as simple as letting the housework or laundry wait til another day, in order to just be with your child.  It could be something like what my mom did for me when I was growing up, allowing me to take a couple days off from school each year just because.  You are your children's mother and other than God you know them best, so you know what it is each of them need and want.  You will discover their love language as you spend this quality time with them.  After you discover how they see love you can then be intentional in showing them love in ways they will be understand it.  
Sometimes laying down your life for those outside your home, extended family and friends, will mean that you set aside time to call them simple to see how they are doing and tell them you were thinking about them.  It may be not doing something on your schedule in order to go out to lunch or dinner with them.  It could be driving to their home or opening up your home to them when you realize they are really feeling lonely or needing someone to lean on, when you are very tired and were about to kick up and rest for a bit.  It is laying aside your expectations of people and accepting them like they are and loving them unconditionally.  Maybe you find out someone you know is struggling financially and you were planning a day trip or weekend getaway, and you choose to lay aside that trip to give them the money to buy groceries or pay their mortgage. There are many ways in which we can "lay down our lives" for those in our lives.  If it doesn't cost us something- materially, physically, mentally, emotionally- then it doesn't really mean that much.  We have to invest ourselves in those we love.  We can't only  be there for our husbands, children, family and friends when it's simply convenient for us to do so.  We have to be there for them especially when it's inconvenient, that's laying aside ourselves and loving them with God's kind of love.  
So as you go through this Valentines Day, take time to think of ways you can lay down your life for those you love and then take action!  
"Don't just pretend to love others.  Really love them..." Romans 12:9

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