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Celebrate! May 11, 2025 Devotional

by David Joynt on May 11, 2025

Celebrate! May 11, 2025 Devotional

ROMANS 12:10 | 10 Love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor.

 

C.S. Lewis’ book on the four loves includes a specific form of familial and social affection called “philostorgos.” This is the encouraging love which helps people to grow and develop. Like water for a plant, it feeds and nurtures psyches and souls, providing the energy and purpose to learn, develop, express, and venture. It is a love that sees the potential in someone, identifying their gifts and passions. We see it clearly in parents with children, coaches and teachers with pupils, mentors with mentees, marriage partners with each other, and among friends and business partners. The world is harsh and critical and we all need a cheering section!

 

How good are you at “philostorgos”?

 

 

Gracious God,

Fill my mind with discernment and wisdom to understand the potential of others. Fill my mouth with encouragement for those around me.

Amen.

 

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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