love

In my devotional time my mom encouraged me to read 1 Corinthians 13 everyday. I was showing people in my life selfish conditional  love which isn't right and was not making me or anyone else happy. I took each verse of 1 Corinthians 13 and rewrote it to really specifically tap into my life. This way when I read it I could check up on myself in these areas of my life. While I was reading 1 Corinthians I have been chugging through Mark and just started 1 John. 1 John has been focusing on if we say we love the Lord and know him but do not follow his commandments we are lying. In Mark it shows Christ loving on people and helping them not get caught up in the judgment and the rules but simply loving.

I have also been reading the book "Kisses from Katie" about a 19 year old who moves to Uganda and adopts 13 girls. She talks about telling these kids about how much Jesus loves them. But, she mentions the kids don't know what love is because they have no been shown it. Because of this, she has to show them love so they can comprehend a small portion of what Jesus' love is for them. If she is going to love them she has to meet their basic needs.

I am horrible at showing love to the people who are closest to me. I will be the first to say I am a total brat and am so selfish especially at home. But the Lord is working on my heart everyday. Every time I surrender to the Lord and hold my tongue or help my mom out is a time I am taking control from Satan and myself and giving it over to the Lord.

I hope this encourages you and helps you in your relationships with others.

1 Corinthians 13
1:"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angles, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal." 
---If I am oh so holy and know tons of languages and think I can talk to God but don't love the people I am talking to then my speech just songs like annoying alarms. 



2:"And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing."
-- If I get a 36 on my ACT and know everything there is to know, and if I completely trust God with my future and everything in my life, but I'm rude to my teachers and I am selfish with my time to study it's all for nothing.

3:"If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned but have not love, I gain nothing."
--If I sell everything I have and move to Africa but I don't love the children I go to, it means nothing. If I say I will be burned for my faith but yell at the people doing it and curse their names, it mean nothing.

4:"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast it is not arrogant" 
--When I have to repeat something I said or walk slowly for an older person without rolling my eyes or getting annoyed that is loving. Instead of making jokes about someone I build them up. When people in my life have more or succeed I rejoice with them. To humbly ask for help is love.

5:"or rude. It does not insist on its own way, it is not irritable or resentful,"

--If I curse at someone while driving or give sass I am not loving. When I give up my selfish wants I am loving. If my mother asks for help in the kitchen and all I want to do is be on my phone and I go help, that is love. Even if I'm tired in the morning I speak kindly. I hold no record of wrongs. I don't hold on to grudges and bring things up from the past. 



6:"It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth."
-- I'm not loving my friend if I cheer them on for cheating on a test or lying to their parents or gossiping. I am loving when I call them out and lead in the right direction. 





7:"Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."

--When my brother is singing at the top of his lungs when I want to go to sleep I don't yell at him but ask him nicely to stop or I just deal with it. I push them in their dream believing they can do it being their biggest cheerleader. I take the rude comments, the smacking, the non-funny jokes, the embarrassing clothing or dad jokes and I let it go and look past because Love is about more. 

8:"Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away."
--love holds on, it lasts, those in your family aren't going anywhere so invest in them. Look, school is not forever, spend time with your family and maybe study a little less. Work on the relationships that will last, your friendships probably won't. But family is forever.

9:"For we know in part and we prophesy in part"
--We know some and we teach some 

10:"But when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away."
-- When Jesus comes the trivial things will pass away and your love or lack there of will be left standing. 

11:"When I was a child I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man I gave up childish ways."
--grow up. When you were a kid you were probably really selfish. Your parents have done so much for you it's time to give back.


12:"For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. "
-- Right now we only understand a little of what this all means, when we come before Jesus we will see fully.

13:"So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love."
--I don't care if I pray 10 hours for someone and hope they know Christ and believe God will save them, if I don't love then it means NOTHING.

Does the love you show your family and friends reflect how Jesus want us to love?

Stop trying to change the world and start by changing your relationships with your family. If you can't love the people who already love you unconditionally and who are you won flesh and blood how can you love others?

Love, it's not a feeling, it's a decision, everyday to put others above yourself.