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Pause

Paul writes to the Colossians: “Take off the old human nature with its practices and put on the new nature…”

Pause – to consider what God is inviting you to hear and to see today.

Pause to consider what God is inviting you to “put on.”

Listen

Therefore, as God’s choice, holy and loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Be tolerant with each other and, if someone has a complaint against anyone, forgive each other. As the Lord forgave you, so also forgive each other. And over all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.

Colossians 3:12-14

Think

How do you become tolerant of others? How do you make yourself make a choice to do something or live in a way that is opposite of how you feel? Sometimes you have to act the part to get to the place where the feelings set in. “Fake it ’til you make it” is a phrase you hear about learning to accomplish something that you don’t really feel. Faking it is not great. What is happening in this description of God’s choice for us is not about being fake. But it is about practicing attitudes so that the “muscles” of these attitudes get stronger and then potentially turn into a real strength.

There is a key element to practicing something God asks of us, whether that is tolerance, love, or forgiveness. That is to remember that we do not do this alone. God is with us, experiencing our hesitation AND our willingness to try. God is with us, showing us with Jesus how it was done.

Put on love. Put on God’s choice today. Practice it – on others, on yourself. Put on love.

Gina Yeager-Buckley

Pray

O God, today I would like to “put on” the things that will show others that I celebrate them, that I see them, that I appreciate them. Today I would like to “put on” things that show others that I am like you. Amen.

Go

Go – to put on love. To practice love. To offer the love that God gives to you to the world around you.