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Love
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Location: Blogs WCFS Newsletter |
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| Posted by: Newsletter Editor |
7/2/2008 |
| LOVE
By Clair Simpson
May 9, 2008
Love is patient, (love) is kind and is not jealous, (love) does not brag and is not arrogant.
(Love) does not act unbecomingly; it does not see its own, (love) is not provoked, (it) does not take into account a wrong suffered.
(Love) does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth.
(Love) fears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails....
(1 Corinthians 13:4-8)
I am always humbled as I read these verses. People always say they know what love is, but if they haven’t read these verses then they don’t have a clue. I didn’t until I read it. When my brother refuses to learn piano, when my little sisters hang outside my bedroom door wanting “nails painted”, when people I trusted turn their back on me, I am apt to take it in and let all of it just fume inside of me until I let it out on an unsuspecting victim. But God has been teaching me more and more as this year progresses about love. For instance how, not matter how loud I shout, not matter how much I go on and on about the same thing, it DOESN’T MATTER! What dose matter is that Jesus said, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44)
So, if someone makes you mad just hug them. Gently, of course. Well, that’s what my mom says. But, personally, I find it extremely hard to hug a brother who is still yelling at me from the other side of the room. Now that could just be me! Maybe you are able to hug your screaming sister. Better though, is not to get into the argument in the first place. Then I can escape being angry and love “my enemy” even more. And if I do get into it then I need to just give it up. Because, again, it DOESN’T MATTER! If they win, so be it; at least I loved them through it-and we both win.
I also find it hard not to grins someone into the ground when they do the wrong thing by accident. Like, say, one of your brothers accidentally bumped your shoulder while your writing your report and you scribbled on the page. You could let off like this: “Oh, man, what’d you that for? Now I have to erase the WHOLE THING! Ugh, I can’t believe this! Well, now I’ll have to write it tonight and it’ll probably take me forever so Ill be really tired tomorrow.” Then, when he offers to fix it for you, you act like the little saint, “No, no, don’t bother. It doesn’t have to matter to you. I’ll just live with it. Oh, my hand’s cramping up from all this writing. No, I can do it. Really, I’ll just live with it.” Imagine what you must make him feel like. It sounds as if he almost killed you by bumping your arm! First, you shouldn’t have to writhe the WHOLE THING over again. Secondly, if it takes you forever you have problems that need help. Thirdly, is it really worth taking him on a guilt trip? Does he really have to feel miserable for the rest of the day just because he bumped you?
God calls us to love. We’re not to love only the popular; we’re not to love only our closest friends; we’re to love everyone! So when God calls you to love someone do it with your whole heart! And remember that we are to love even the ones that hurt us. Matthew 5:46 says, “For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same?” With Christ love and God’s mercy, you can to anything! “I can do al things through Christ who strengtheneth me.”
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