I call them Mell Noteslittle comments my daughter Melissa made in her Bible to help her apply a passage to her life.
In Matthew 7, for instance, she had drawn a box around verses 1 and 2 that talk about not judging others because, when you do, with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. Next to it she wrote this Mell Note: Look at what you are doing before you look at others.
Melissa was an others-oriented teen. She lived the words of Philippians 2:4. Her classmate Matt, who knew her from church nursery through her final days in the eleventh grade when she died in a car accident, said of Melissa at her memorial service: I dont think I ever saw you without a smile or something that brightened up peoples days. Her friend Tara said this: Thanks for being my friend, even when no one else was as nice and cheerful as you.
In a day in which harsh judgment of others seems to be the rule, its good to remember that love starts with us. The words of Paul come to mind: Now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love (1 Cor. 13:13).
What a difference well make if, when we look at others, we say, Love starts with me. And wouldnt that be a great reflection of Gods love for us?
INSIGHT
: In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul is extolling the value of love, but it is not just any kind of love. In Greek, there are a variety of words for love that range in meaning from physical to fraternal. Here, the word translated love is agape, which speaks of supreme lovethe kind that sacrifices itself for the one loved. This is the love God demonstrated for us by giving His Son to pay the price for our sins (John 3:16; Rom. 5:8).
Amen, for His agape love.
Wonderful lesson of love, Rus.
Thank you always for ODB
I find myself in this position when I stop at an intersection. Looking at the driver across the way, I often mutter under my breath that it would have been helpful if he had used his signals so that I would know what he intended.
Then I look at my own dashboard and say, "Oops!"