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Choosing to Love


Imagine getting off work on Friday night (after 4 weeks of work crazy) wanting nothing more than to go home and practice some self-care (for me that looks like cooking a nice meal and being introverted). You go to the grocery store and get the makings for a new recipe (and spend less than $30!!). When you get home, a roommate has been there and cooked something leaving all the dirty dishes in the sink, pans on the stove and messes on the counters.

Yes, this happened to me recently. It was one of those weeks at work. I was definitely craving normalcy after 3 short work weeks due to the holidays and then an ice storm that trapped people indoors for 3 days. Friday night led to no plans except to just cook a nice meal and relax. After going to the grocery store, I walked in the kitchen and it is almost destroyed. A roommate had cooked something that used a lot of pans and dishes. Instead of cleaning up the mess, she left it there and left for her Friday night plans. Imagine my extreme irritation! I was annoyed and angry. Because I just wanted to cook something and how hard is it to clean up your mess anyway. Angry, I threw all the dishes in the sink and proceeded with making my frittata. But of course, not before pouring myself a big glass of wine. An hour later, I had some healthy food in my body and had definitely calmed down. When I went to clean up my mess, I could feel God nudging me telling me to do my roommates dishes too. Ugh but why? It was not my mess to clean. I kept feeling the nudge and decided to just do ALL the dishes, begrudgingly of course. 

Earlier in the week, a friend was telling me how frustrated she was about a situation with the people she lives with. I told her that maybe God was preparing her to live with someone permanently (you know, marriage). She thought maybe God was trying to teach her how to pick her battles. Both good lessons.

In these two different, yet strikingly similar scenarios, God was trying to show us that loving and serving people is often very hard (yet simple) things we definitely do not want to do (or take responsibility for). And sometimes loving someone well is choosing to listen to God's still small voice over the enemy shouting from the rooftops. God says pick your battles and I'm pretty sure He told me that night being angry over a messy kitchen wasn't worth it. Stay silent and do the dishes. 

How have you listened to God's small voice lately?
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