Motivated by Love

 

Motivated by Love I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.”  Nehemiah 4:14 Everyone with a spark of honor in them will fight to the death for their family. We are strongly motivated when it comes to defending those we care about! We must care for the safety of the town we live in because our family is in it, and danger to the town is danger to us. We must ensure clean water, good sanitation, and safe streets because our children and friends live here. The same applies to moral and spiritual influences in our community; when the spiritual well-being of our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, is at stake. A person may not have much interest in community causes, until something harms that person's family; then you can be sure they will rise to the occasion at last! A notable man once spoke at the opening of a reformatory for boys and said that if only one boy was saved from ruin, it would be worth the entire cost. Afterward, someone asked the speaker whether they overstated it by saying it would be worth it to save just one boy. He replied, “If it were my boy, it certainly would be worth it!” Whatever work we dedicate ourselves to, we will certainly do a better job when we do it as if we were doing it for people we love. Isn't this the kind of love Jesus told us about? Jesus was also strongly motivated by the concept of family and he went so far as to die for us, so we can be called the children of God.  By J.R. Miller, edited