So far this has been a daily journal focus on thoughts from I Corinthians 13 for Valentine’s Day. Today is going to be a little a little different but I am still going to focus on love.
God’s love toward us is the only perfect love there is. However, we, being an imperfect people, can not understand perfect love. So, to help us understand how much He loves us, God gave us a model: family. The only breakdown in this system is that families contain people and people are not perfect. Many families struggle and are broken, which of course does not reflect God’s plan for love, but the families that invite God to lead them are a very good illustration of how it should work.
My family has people in it. Shocking, I know. So no, we are not perfect…not even close. But I do have a great family. One that loves God, one that submits to God’s plan for how the family should work, and one that loves each other. I can not think of a better example to use for today’s thought on love than them.
My parents and siblings, Tim and Lory, drove down to watch the Superbowl at our house tonight. The whole time I could not help thinking how blessed I am to be a part of this crazy, awesome group. You couldn’t have made the Withrow clan happier than we were tonight! There was football, food, and each other…doesn’t get better than that!! We love getting together. By the time everyone leaves to go their separate ways, we are worn out from laughing and talking and playing and hugging. We are very good huggers.
My daddy is one of the best example of a Godly man I have ever known. He is the family leader and pictures the position of the Lord on a human level. He is a hard worker, he loves my mom dearly, he leads our family to the best of his ability and has a very unique, quiet strength about him that gently guides our ship. He has never failed to be there for us kids and would willing give anything to protect us and make our lives great.
My mom is very much like superwoman. She was our teacher in school and in life. She has given me big shoes to fill when it comes to loving my husband. She has been a faithful and supportive wife towards my dad and shows her love to him through submitting to his authority. I have so much respect for how she devotes every ounce of energy she has to being a good mom. Thinking back on it now, I don’t know how she always managed to balance keeping our home together and home-school us and give us such a great childhood all at the same time.
My siblings are absolutely fantastic too. We had bumps as kids and there have been some not-so-loving moments between us once in a while but deep down we love each other dearly. The way that we exemplified biblical love was to mirror how humans are supposed to love God through how we loved our parents. It is a trusting, obedient love that thrives on closeness and respect. We made have not liked it when we got told “no” but we loved our parents even in those frustrating moments.
All in all, I have a great family to call my own. We are a mess but a mess that truly loves each other. I am SO blessed to be able to spend time with them. Watching the Superbowl together is so fun, not really because of the football (although we do love it!), but more because we are together being silly, being huggy, being together. Even though the Colts lost (boo!), it was a great night.
LOVE YOU GUYS!!!
Holly… i absolutely LOVE the superbowl pics!!! They’re sooo awesome! Best night ever!