You know the kind of evening? When you walk in the door and you are assaulted by the noise of screaming kids, as they whirlwind past you in a flurry of activity. Most days this doesn’t bother me, in fact it’s almost expected really. But some days, it drives me spare.
“I’ve been at work all day, earning the money to pay for your Ballet lessons. I have a head ache and just want some alone time. Please make the noise go away.”
I may not even say these words, but at times I know I think them.
The grown up pride of my little world has recently been challenged as I have been reading through the book of 1 Corinthians in the Bible. Earlier this week, a few sentences jumped out at me.
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.”
It got me thinking that I can be the best person in my job at work yet if I fail to do it with love, I am a nothing. I can earn lots of money and provide very well for my family, but if I don’t have love I am a nothing. I can even be a really nice guy, be well respected by my friends and peers, yet if I am not characterised by love especially by those who know me well, then I am nothing more than a resounding gong or noisy cymbal.
My prayer is that tomorrow afternoon when I walk through the front door, that as I am assaulted by the whirlwind of kids and all the noise that goes with them, that I wouldn’t be a noisy gong or clanging cymbal…but that I would have love. That’s the kind of Father I want to be.
