Day 19: Mirror, mirror...

One of our goals as we seek to Love 40 days, is to live a life of love, following the example of Christ (Ephesians 5:2).  Since we know that we cannot love in the way that we have been reading about without God's help, we want to love in a way that shows something of Jesus to those we know.  We want our loving to reflect Jesus to those around us.

To encourage you today, as you seek to love like this, here is part of the prayer of St. Patrick.  Maybe a couple of lines will stick in your mind as a meditation for you today:

Christ with me, Christ before me,
Christ behind me, Christ within me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ at my right, Christ at my left,
Christ in the fort,
Christ in the chariot seat,
Christ on the deck,
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks to me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

For the kids:
Read the prayer above together and talk about what it might mean for us.  Obviously we don't have chariots these days, so for children who don't know what these are, you could choose a different vehicle!  You could encourage younger children to draw pictures to show some of the lines of the prayer to help them think about what it means for them to have Jesus as such a central part of their lives.  Or you could spend time looking in a mirror and talking about what we see when we look at ourselves and what we want others to see - and how we might show them Jesus as we try to love others today.