People Priorities.

Its been a rough two days. Yesterday was spent with this odd sensation that something was wrong-mainly that Brett was gone....who knows why some days are harder than others but that seems to be the case....And then today, today Mrs. Kinnaird passed away...
Now, for those of you who don't know the run down of my "family", basically Steve and Billie are my parents best friends since college and my second set of parents and Mr. and Mrs. Kinnaird are Steve's parents and I consequently I have known them my whole life. And today "Mr. Kinnaird" ( yes, I call them this...it seems to be formal, but some how its not...) said goodbye to his wife.
And I accidently typed "life" and I think that might have been closer to the truth.

I think it is truly a beautiful thing to have been married for 50 years and still delight in someone so very much. I am thankful that the Lord gives us gifts like that. A husband or a wife. Or even just a friend. And that while we are on this earth, we are given such relationships. We are in fact, told in scripture just how important those around us really are and we are given perfect directions on how to keep such relationships where they should be, priority:

"Be devoted to one another in brotherly love, give preference to one another in honor, not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality." ~Romans 12:9-13

I love how the "serving the Lord" part is so mixed in with all those interpersonal relationship commandments. I love how we are to be devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints and how even those two are very much connected ( who are you praying for these days?) and how we are to give preference to one another....but above all, I have come to learn that I can do very little of any of the above things without first going to Christ. I know that the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Kinnaird was firmly grounded in Him first and foremost and that above all else is where those 50 years of love and respect came from...
During this so called "giving" season I wonder if I'm really doing these things like I really should, if I'm giving of myself to others even in the smallest of ways, am I doing it in my own strength, or is that Strength coming from above?

I'm pretty sure I could spend the rest of my days focused on those five verses in Romans and still have more to learn. Today is a good day to start....