What’s Your Superpower?

Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

It wasn’t until I’d backed down the driveway and put the car into gear that I noticed my fuel gauge’s little red marker. I knew it had been hovering around a quarter tank the afternoon before, but now it was filled to the tippy-top. Aaron had—once again—filled my car with gas when he picked Jon up from soccer the night before and had not mentioned it upon his arrival home.

If he isn’t filling my gas tank, he’s charging my phone, which if left to my tender loving care, also consistently hovers around a quarter charge. And it’s not just me: Aaron frequently plugs in school-issued devices when the kids forget before they head upstairs for bed, ensuring a full charge for the next school day. His tendency to quietly stroll behind us, refreshing all the things we use, has become a bit of a running joke in our marriage and our family, earning him the affectionate superhero nickname Super Charge-Up Man.

His love language is acts of service. The simple ongoing gift of charging our batteries and gassing up my car without complaint—other than periodic teasing about me and our teens walking through life uncharged—is a tangible manifestation of his love for us. In turn, I make it a point to express my gratitude with sincere thanks, a kiss, and sometimes a cheeky grin as I dash off, fully charged, to wherever I’m headed next.

Ongoing kindness in the face of a loved one’s foibles is indeed a superpower. My family’s relatively constant state of low batteries and my consistently empty gas tank could easily be an irritation (and admittedly is some days), especially at twenty years into our marriage. And yet Aaron generally turns my annoying quirk into an opportunity to love me (and us) well.

His ongoing act of love has me reconsidering the eccentricities in others, Aaron included. Instead of being slightly annoyed or irritated, I’m pondering how I can reframe idiosyncrasies into an ongoing opportunity to serve and love someone well. It’s my prayer to quietly show the type of ongoing, enduring love laid out in today’s verse, a love that goes beyond words.

Julie

Today’s Act of Gratitude

Consider whose actions reveal their ongoing love (platonic, familial, romantic) for you. Let them know. And consider how you might reveal your enduring love for someone else through an ongoing act of service.