I remember reading a Peanuts cartoon in which Lucy interrupted Schroeder, the piano-loving intellectual. She was infatuated with him and wanted to catch his attention. So Lucy hinted at her interest by asking, “Schroeder, do you know what love is?” Schroeder abruptly stopped his piano playing, stood to his feet, and said precisely, “Love: a noun; to be fond of; to have a strong affection for or an attachment to a person or persons.” Then he sat back down and resumed playing his piano. Lucy sat there stunned and then murmured sarcastically, “On paper, he’s great.” We can talk theories for a long time about love but there must be dedication to application in our homes.
I once heard someone joke that home is the place where family members go when they are tired of being nice to other people. Some homes seem to work that way. A salesman spends his day treating clients with the utmost kindness, often in the face of rejection, in order to build his business, but he is inconsiderate and rude when he comes home to his wife. A doctor spends the day being caring and compassionate with her patients, but she comes home exhausted and blows up with her children.
Walter Burghardt wrote, “Lovers can be impossibly impatient: ‘What in God’s name took you so long?’ Lovers can be unbearably unkind: ‘Don’t bother me now: The Rangers have the bases loaded.’ Lovers can be jarringly jealous: ‘That smile is reserved for me.’ Lover can be maddeningly rude: ‘How can you possibly be so clumsy?’ Lovers can and do insist on their own way, take their irritations out on the nearest and the dearest, believe only what they can see, hope for what is satisfying to them individually, endure only as much as they must.” (When Christ Meets Christ, 1993).
As a foundation for family…we need to first understand that God loves us and we must dedicate ourselves to loving one another…and beginning that process and focusing that love at home. First Corinthians 13 says, "Love is patient and kind..."...even at home.
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