“Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma” (Ephesians 5:1-2, NKJV).

How do we love as Christ? We love freely and fully. We don’t require someone to earn our love. They don’t need to do anything for us in order for us to love them. We choose to love them. We freely forgive.

How can we be sweet-smelling? We need to imitate Jesus. We need to imitate God. We need to be like Jesus. He loved us. He gave Himself for us, which was an offering and a sacrifice to God. An offering and a sacrifice are things that need to be given up, given over. It takes a death to self, an unselfish heart, to give up and give over. It’s not really an offering and a sacrifice unless it takes something from us. A little part of self needs to die, which is what we want! When we are doing that for others, laying down our lives for them, putting them before ourselves, we are really giving an offering and a sacrifice to God.

God loves a cheerful giver. We need to serve others cheerfully. Every day we have the chance to give this gift to God and be a sweet-smelling aroma. We have chances within our families, every day, to put others first and serve others, giving up ourselves and our own wants, in order to choose to love others and give ourselves to them. And, if we can keep our focus on serving God and pleasing Him, then we can do it cheerfully, pleasing God and feeling good ourselves. It doesn’t feel good to grumble, but it feels great to know you are pleasing God.