Christmas Eve Healing through Love

Added note: One grace of Love is forgiveness -- and I ask forgiveness that I've been writing I Corinthians 15 through this series, when in fact, to my discomfiture, it is chapter 13! We will have to address the 15th chapter after this out of curiosity if nothing else!!!!  Love includes humility so here I am. Stuff happens, as they say.

So here is today's offering:

I Corinthians 13: 5-6

[Love] thinketh no evil; 

Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; 

Henry Drummond interprets thinketh no evil as guilelessness. He writes, "Guilelessness is the grace for suspicious people. The possession of it is the great secret of personal influence. You will find, if you think for a moment, that the people who influence you are people who believe in you. In an atmosphere of suspicion men shrivel up; but in that atmosphere they expand, and find encouragement and educative fellowship" (11). 

Example. A mother called me for prayerful support and help because her teenage son had been arrested for car theft. He pleaded innocent. He explained what happened to his mother, but she didn't really believe him. I told her to give him the benefit of the doubt -- what if he was innocent and his story was true but she did not believe in him? Bad all the way around. What if she believed in him but was wrong? That was the higher way -- and what if he was telling the truth? Either way, better to accept and believe in your child and be proven wrong, than to join the accusers and then find him or her innocent. If nothing else, the support rather than suspicion, is healing and shows highest love. As it turned out, this teenager's story was true, he was innocent, and this mother was so very happy that she told him she believed him and was on his side no matter what. The relationship was strengthened through this exercise of guilelessness. Show confidence, not suspicion, and nurture love in your relationships.

Drummond elaborates, "Love “thinketh no evil,” imputes no motive, sees the bright side, puts the best construction on every action. What a delightful state of mind to live in! What a stimulus and benediction even to meet with it for a day! To be trusted is to be saved" (12). 

Let's go on a Christmas Eve 'watch' and express the above concept from Drummond -- spreading that wonderful aspect of Love as a gift to all we meet or think upon. Merry Christmas Eve!

Drummond, Henry (2011-01-01). The Greatest Thing in the World, Experience the Enduring Power of Love (p. 12). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.