As each of you sat down at the table every evening and looked around, you saw individuals with different hair and eyes, and dissimilar dispositions but were often poles apart with likes and dislikes. Yet each of you came from the same gene pool, were fed the same mother’s milk, ate the same food for years and years, and received pretty much the same life instruction. Yet, you do not like to be compared to your brothers or sisters, do you? You prefer to make your own choices and develop your own lifestyle. That is your privilege, granted by God Himself. Although each of you is unique, each of you was given choices to observe, evaluate, and choose what your life will stand for. Indecision is in fact, a decision that can have long-term impact on your joy and hope.

When making decisions we often have faulty information to work with because of the society we live in. That is why over the years, I have always encouraged you to pray, seek your own answers, and make your own decisions based on what God has put into your mind. Today, I want you to think about what and who it is that we call “GOD.” He is not some big ethereal puff of smoke we can’t get our arms and heart around — there is much much more. Jesus illustrates the reality of who God is with His answer to the “Teachers of the Law’s” question in Mark 12:28: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” Jesus was quoting the Jewish “Shema” from Deuteronomy 6: 4–5. Let’s consider and define the key words from this Deuteronomy passage to ensure that we understand what it really says.

• Lord (Yahweh), a proper name meaning “the existing One”
• God (Elohim), a plural masculine name for gods, rulers, judges, or divine ones
• One (’echad), an adjective indicating singularity, likeness, togetherness, and unity
• Love (‘ahab), a verb meaning, “appetite for another’s intimate and caring friendship”
• Soul (nephesh), a feminine noun for the living substance of an individual’s mind, emotions, desires, appetites, and passions
• Mind (lebab), a masculine noun for the inner seat of man’s courage producing emotion, appetites, memory, knowledge, and understanding.

Thus, the verses can be interpreted this way: “Listen people your existing rulers and judges are single-minded and in agreement. You should have a voracious appetite for an intimate friendship with each of these rulers and that love should be driven by the passions you were born with (regardless of whether you are male or female.)” Single-mindedness and harmony are the reason they are called one, not because they are one individual. With that thought in mind, I encourage you to think today about what you believe the difference should be, relationship-wise, with God The Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. (I hope you picked up on the fact that God is the family name, as Coker is ours.) What do you see as individual differences, since they are single-minded in purpose and intent?

Love, Dad