The other night at dinner our eldest daughter, Abbie, prayed this line as part of her dinner blessing-

“Help us to be proactive in loving our neighbors.”

I was caught off-guard for a few reasons. First, that she used proactive correctly in a sentence. I had never heard her say that before. After some investigation, she shared that her class has been learning what it means to be proactive in her life-skills class.

Second, I wanted to see if she knew what it meant to be “proactive in loving our neighbors.” We talked and she said that it meant that we “look to be nice to them.” A good answer, because in “looking” we are being proactive. We talked about ways that we can be on the lookout to show our family, our friends, and our neighbors love.

This Christmas season, we remember God- who was proactive in revealing love to us. The first Messianic prophecy comes back in Genesis 3 and there are many throughout the Old Testament. God did not decide to come to earth haphazardly or reactively- but was proactive in sending Jesus, God-in-Flesh, to the earth as the ultimate gift of love in order that we might have life with God.

This Christmas, how are you proactively revealing God’s love to your neighbors? To your family? To your co-workers? When we live lives of love we shine the light of God’s love to all those around.