Dear children, let us stop just saying we love each other; let us really show it by our actions. It is by our actions that we know we are living in the truth. 1 John 3:18-19

WOULD YOU BELIEVE a person who claims to be a famous race car driver but can’t back his car out of his garage?

Would you believe a person who tells you she is a trapeze artist in a world-famous circus but is afraid to climb a ladder to change a light bulb?

Would you believe a person who claims to be the world’s greatest psychic and then asks you what time it is?

Probably not, right? Why not? Because their actions don’t support their claims.

It’s no different when people say they love someone but don’t show it by their actions. Such claims are hard to believe because there’s no evidence to support their claims.

You see, it’s one thing to talk about love, to say we love each other. It’s something else entirely to really show we love each other by our actions. For example, you might say you love others, but when’s the last time you did something to help Mrs. McCready, the old lady who looks like she’s about three hundred years old and lives alone down the street and has to shovel the snow off her sidewalk and mow the lawn herself? You might say you love pretty much everybody, but how long has it been since you showed your love for someone with your actions and not only with words?

“It is by our actions,” the apostle John said, “that we know we are living in the truth.” Do your actions show your love for others?

REFLECT: Today’s Scripture reading doesn’t say that we should stop saying “I love you” to our parents, siblings, friends, and others we love; it says we should “stop just saying we love each other.” In other words, we should say it and show it. Is there someone who needs to be reminded of your love? How can you do a better job of showing your love to others?

ACT: Suggest a family “project” to your parents to show God’s love to someone outside your family (bake cookies for a shut-in, take the family pet to visit nursing home patients, send a card to a prisoner, baby-sit for a single parent, shovel snow for an elderly couple, or whatever).

PRAY: “God, I know that love comes from you. So please help me find a way to show love to_________________ this week.”