Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law. For the commandments say, “You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not covet.” These—and other such commandments—are summed up in this one commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law. This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is almost gone; the day of salvation will soon be here. So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes, and put on the shining armor of right living. Because we belong to the day, we must live decent lives for all to see. Don’t participate in the darkness of wild parties and drunkenness, or in sexual promiscuity and immoral living, or in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And don’t let yourself think about ways to indulge your evil desires.

Romans 13:8-14

Dear God, I am struck by the line in here, “Love does no wrong to others…” That seems very definitive, and I don’t think it’s exactly accurate. For example, I can think of a lot of mistakes I did with raising my children, and I never did them because I didn’t love them. Nearly all of them were done because I thought I was doing the right thing for them. And then there were times when I was actually doing the right thing, but they didn’t perceive it as the right thing. So this doesn’t feel quite accurate.

I was talking with someone a couple of months ago who is in their 50s, and they were referencing a decision their parents made when the person was in their early 20s. They were still holding on to a grudge over it. This friend has told me this story before, and I’ve told them, “Be frustrated with the decision, but don’t ascribe malice to it. The parents thought they were making the right decision. They thought they were doing the merciful thing.

I was talking with a young woman last night, and we were talking about having mercy for your parents. She is still in high school and, like any high schooler, is sorting through dealing with parents who are flawed–because we are all flawed and we all have flawed parents. I hope I was able to at least plant some seeds of mercy.

Father, make me the example you need me to be today. I just heard about a woman who left her husband because of his alcoholism. She did this for her own sanity, but she also did it for him. She loves him and doesn’t feel like she can enable him anymore. He didn’t see the fact that she filed for divorce as love, but in some ways it is. Be in that situation. Be with the young woman I spoke with last night. Be with the parents of the other person I mentioned. Be with me, a flawed parent in need of mercy from my children and a son who needs to extend mercy to his parents. Be with me, a flawed husband and me a man who needs to extend mercy to his wife. Be with me, a flawed supervisor who needs mercy from my staff and me the flawed subordinate to our board of directors who needs to also extend mercy to them. I am sorry for how I fail you. Sometimes I did it out of love for you and I got ahead of myself and sometimes I did it out of selfishness and vanity. I am sorry. Help me to accept your forgiveness and to forgive myself.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen