Honor Others

Yesterday I made a trip to the mall where our only Hallmark in the city resides. My husband's birthday is coming up on Friday, the 6th, and I detest getting a birthday card that says something generic or sans true meaning. Alas, a few months ago, our only Christian retailer had to close down and so I am pretty much on my own for religious cards unless I want to go to Hobby Lobby (aka HoLo). Being the dear wife that I am (or can be...) I decided against going to the beloved HoLo because the temptation to garnish my cart with skeins upon skeins of yarn or scrapbooking materials would be too much for my bored pregnant soul.


After perusing the two columns worth of cards for husbands, I quickly realized why I found myself having to settle on a card instead of going, "Yeah! That's the one!"

Every single card, though it is meant to be given to someone else, almsot always begins with, "I...". Seriously? This is a day all about the other person. How wonderful they are. What they've done for us. All these "I" statements, sentences and sentiments make all these cards seem so... selfish. I couldn't stand it. None of these cards could come close to conveying what a special person my husband is. Instead they were repeated attempts at the same sentiment, "I love you because of what your actions and choices do for solely me."

My mother-in-law makes all of the cards that her and my father-in-law send out. Whether it's a birthday card, thank you card, get well card... she makes it (and does them well!) I've asked her to show me, and she does, and somehow between the drive from Florida to South Dakota, I lose all sense of creativity when it comes to card making and thus find myself frustrated and completely incapable of making anything worth even keeping, let alone worth looking at.

I'm almost near the point though that, whilst I cannot compile together a neat and pretty card like my mother-in-law, I will scrap together what I can (with earnest attempts at true creativity) so I can begin to write my own sentiments about how lovely that person is... not how lovely I am, or how lovely I am because of them.

Looking at these cards made me think. How often do we express how much someone we love means to us without doing it in a selfish way? Are we all driven by such self-centered motives as to what they can do for us, or are we truly grateful for the person God made them to be?

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. - ROMANS 12:2 (NLT)

Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. - ROMANS 12:10 (NLT)