So Much To Learn............So Much to Bear

Here I am at 34 and yet, I still feel like a new Christian at times. I'm always finding new truths and moments of "ahh- haa" in my life. Thank goodness, right?! However, that also comes with moments of great embarrassment and groveling too as I am humbled by my own sinful nature. This year, I've committed to fast so many times and during that time study the good old Fruits of the Spirit. Sounds boring, I know, but boy am I learning like a new kids in school for the first time. I"m still stuck on the oh so popular fruit........love. As I was reading it today, I came across ICor. 13 because this passage helps me understand love a little bit more. Well it states that "love bears all things." Well what the heck does that mean?!! Well, I pulled out my greek/hebrew concordance and looked up the root meaning. It means to cover in silence, endure, to suffer. Ouch!! This hit me hard. If you know me, you know that silence only comes when I'm tired. I'm never silent!!Then I started thinking about all the challenging moments that would have gone some much smoother if I had just "endured in silence.............suffered". Silence is suffering for me and God knows it too. Then I started to think about pallbearers. When the funeral comes, they just quietly carry the dead to his/her grave with no words. It doesn't matter what that deceased person said or didn't say that upset the pallbearers; they show respect for the dead and so quietly carry him/her upon the shoulders. They "bear" that person on that day. How often should we just "bear" the difficult things and just carry them in love, without saying the last word or getting the last poke?! I must remember this with my family.