Love Can be Tough

We went to church yesterday like we always do on Sunday.  Ron Schrock of the California Association of Regular Baptist Churches came and spoke to us about Love. He didn’t speak about Romantic Love. He spoke about Biblical love and how it can be a pain.  He explored 1 Corinthians 13. He broke it down verse by verse. I believe that all Christians at one point or another have read that chapter of the bible, and most of them have read it several times.  When you read it, did you realize how hard it is to accomplish biblical love?  A person who speaks without love is compared to a clanging symbol.  We are told that we can have All Faith, but if we have no love, we are nothing. Nothing. God considers us nothing if we have no love. Have you read what biblical love is supposed to look like?

Patient, kind, never jealous or boastful nor arrogant. Love does not act unbecomingly, it does not seek it’s own (or the person doing the loving does not burden others with their troubles), it is not provoked, it does not hold grudges, it bears all things, believes all things, and endures all things. Biblical love is forever. If we have Faith and Hope, but have not love, we are nothing to God.  1 Corinthians 13:4-7

I have lost track of how many times I have been provoked by someone or held a grudge. God expects us to love others as He has loved us.  I prayed to for patience a few times in the last few months.  I have learned that when we pray for something God is faithful to answer our prayers. Boy has He answered this one! My life is not perfect. My marriage isn’t always a fairytale, and this week it has been tough. It has been tough because I forgot what biblical love is supposed to look like. I have been impatient with my husband, I have said some pretty unkind things to him. I have acted unbecomingly, and I have been provoked by him.  The sermon given by Ron Schrock came at just the right time because it spoke straight to my heart. I must admit that when I prayed for patience, it was not for patience with my husband but with my children.  I didn’t know that when I prayed for patience that God would also show me that I was not living up to His standards of biblical love either. If I strive to love biblically then patience with my children and husband should follow. 

My family is the most important aspect of my life and I want to love them with biblical love. I want to love them the way that God intended. So today I am praying that the Holy Spirit will help me to love biblically and that patience will be a result of that love.

 

Will you pray for me and my family?