Love is Patient
We are just about a week away from our next presidential election in the United States. With that in mind, I felt it might be helpful, hopeful even, to sit with some words from 1 Corinthians this week.
Before you read this familiar passage, I encourage you to plant your feet on the ground and sit up tall. Pause for a minute and notice your body today. What do you notice about how your body is feeling at this moment? How is your jaw? How are your shoulders? Do you feel tightness anywhere? Are you anxious? Do you feel at peace? Just notice. You don't have to change it or fix it. Just observe it and name it.
Now, close your eyes and take a deep breath through your nose, filling your whole being with air. Then, slowly exhale through your mouth. Do this two or three times, welcoming the Holy Spirit.
When you are ready, read these verses aloud. As you do, notice what the Holy Spirit highlights for you today.
1 Corinthians 13 (NLT)
"If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn't love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God's secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn't love others, I would be nothing.
If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn't love others, I would have gained nothing.
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love lasts forever!
Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture!
But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.
When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.
Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
Three things will last forever - faith, hope, and love - and the greatest of these is love."
You may want to reread these verses or spend some time journaling before moving on with your day. Here are some questions you might ask if you need help getting started -
What stood out to me today?
What do I want to talk with God about?
How can I demonstrate love this week?
Have a great week. Melissa