Consider Compassion

So here it is~ February~ the month for Valentine’s Day EVERYTHING. From the hearts plastered all over Walmart to the Russell Stover displays in your local grocery store. The constant “Kiss begins with Kay” commercials and the sappy Hallmark cards and movies. It’s almost unavoidable. Add to it all the devotionals out there geared toward single Christian women that are struggling and how they need to find contentment in Jesus~ and it becomes overwhelming. What makes it even harder is the women, who do have husbands and families, continually complaining about everything their husbands do wrong and how they never have any “me” time because their lives are so busy. They might even go so far as to tell their single friends~ “you don’t know how good you have it”. And with their next reprimanding breath they add~ “You seriously need to find contentment being single. Stop being so depressed, Jesus is all you need girl.” I understand that some women are perfectly content being single. I also understand that some women want a husband and family more than anything in the world. It’s their own personal fairy tale and they desperately want a happily ever after.
CONSIDER COMPASSION. Until we put ourselves in someone else’s shoes, we cannot know the hurt they are experiencing. Consider going home night after night to an empty house. No laughter, no hugs, no one to greet you. No one to share your day with. No physical intimacy of any kind, whether from a husband or from children. No one to sit and watch your favorite shows or a bowl of ice cream with. No one to pray with. No shoulder to lay your head on. No one lying next to you in the stillness of night. No comfort that comes from the sound of their soft breathing as they sleep. No one to say “I love you”. We take so much for granted.
CONSIDER COMPASSION.
Even Jesus Himself had compassion. He did not reprimand Mary when she wept over the loss of her brother. He did not tell her that He alone should be enough for her. He wept with her. This Valentine’s Day, if God has blessed you with a husband and a family, make a conscious effort to stop complaining about the little things and celebrate that beautiful love that fills your life. If you do have friends that are single and are hurting, or lonely and struggling~
CONSIDER COMPASSION.
Pray for them, love on them, be there for them and stop complaining to them. Yes, Jesus truly is all we need and true joy can only come from Him, but that is a journey they must take on their own, without us judging them or pushing them every step of the way. It’s much easier for those of us that do have families to make critical statements to those who don’t. If it was all taken away from us today, would we still be able to say Jesus was all we needed~and truly mean it in our heart? Valentine’s Day is all about love. Look unto Jesus, the perfect and most holy source of that love, and then~CONSIDER COMPASSION.
Romans 12:15 John 11:35
Jude 1:22