Love
1 Corinthians 13
Love
1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Okay over the past few weeks, our Wed night small group has been going over Love. . focusing on 1 Corinthians 13. And I have grown up memorizing that chapter of Corinthians. But this past week our discussion was based around showing compassion and love to EVERYONE. An example used was how are we to the telemarketers when they call? Are we polite when we say no, or are we completely rude and hang up on them? When he mentioned that we all just laughed. Because the telemarketers are the hardest people to love and show compassion to. And as we were discussing this, other examples rose up. . .from how do you handle situations when you are in a hurry and things seem to be going wrong while in line trying to check out? He then went on to challenge us to be more loving. .. which means more : paitient, kind, gentle, have more self control, be more polite to anyone and everybody.
And I started thinking more about that challenge. First I was like, oh that's easy for me. I'm always nice and patient to everyone. WHich to a certain extent, I do think that I am more patient with people that alot of people are. But I can think of instances in the past where I could have been ALOT more loving. Even if I'm putting on the face of being nice and caring to them, deep down inside I'm grumpy not totally not loving them. It sounds like it should be an easy challenge. But really, stop and think about it. . .to love EVERY SINGLE PERSON that you come in contact with ALL the time is a huge task. Oh another instance that ran through my mind was incompotent drivers!! Ahhh that's where I lose my patience and cool with people. I know I'm nearly as bad as some people, but I do get upset at people when they can't drive!
So how do I start to change my attitude towards people, and genuinely love them all the time? I think that's the challenge of all challenges. I'm such a people person, but still I think it's so much easier to love people that are easy to love. If that makes any sense. But to love someone that is difficiult to love, then it's easy to throw that out the window and to be rude to that person.
So that's my challenge for the week .. well maybe for a lifetime! I know that this isn't something that I can do on my own, but with God's help loving even the telemarketers and rude drivers will come more easy as time goes by. . . . .
Love
1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Okay over the past few weeks, our Wed night small group has been going over Love. . focusing on 1 Corinthians 13. And I have grown up memorizing that chapter of Corinthians. But this past week our discussion was based around showing compassion and love to EVERYONE. An example used was how are we to the telemarketers when they call? Are we polite when we say no, or are we completely rude and hang up on them? When he mentioned that we all just laughed. Because the telemarketers are the hardest people to love and show compassion to. And as we were discussing this, other examples rose up. . .from how do you handle situations when you are in a hurry and things seem to be going wrong while in line trying to check out? He then went on to challenge us to be more loving. .. which means more : paitient, kind, gentle, have more self control, be more polite to anyone and everybody.
And I started thinking more about that challenge. First I was like, oh that's easy for me. I'm always nice and patient to everyone. WHich to a certain extent, I do think that I am more patient with people that alot of people are. But I can think of instances in the past where I could have been ALOT more loving. Even if I'm putting on the face of being nice and caring to them, deep down inside I'm grumpy not totally not loving them. It sounds like it should be an easy challenge. But really, stop and think about it. . .to love EVERY SINGLE PERSON that you come in contact with ALL the time is a huge task. Oh another instance that ran through my mind was incompotent drivers!! Ahhh that's where I lose my patience and cool with people. I know I'm nearly as bad as some people, but I do get upset at people when they can't drive!
So how do I start to change my attitude towards people, and genuinely love them all the time? I think that's the challenge of all challenges. I'm such a people person, but still I think it's so much easier to love people that are easy to love. If that makes any sense. But to love someone that is difficiult to love, then it's easy to throw that out the window and to be rude to that person.
So that's my challenge for the week .. well maybe for a lifetime! I know that this isn't something that I can do on my own, but with God's help loving even the telemarketers and rude drivers will come more easy as time goes by. . . . .