Biblical Love, I Cor. 13, Love is Patient

Why study Biblical love?

Here is the answer, from the Bible.

The greatest commandment is this, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength."  And the second is like it.  "Love your neighbor as yourself."

On these two hinge all the laws and the prophets.

"Now these three remain, faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love."  I Cor. 13

So obviously, I do not write these posts because I have it all together.  And I do not write this post because I am a perfectly patient person.  To say so would be an outright lie.  Rather, I post this as a fellow learner, a fellow traveler, one who needs this Word in my life desperately, for I know the reality of my humanity and the need for Christ and His Word in my life.  

And so, onwards.  Let's look at

"Love is Patient."

Definition of Patience:

Noun The capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset.

I think I am ready to stop right there.  How about you?  Seriously.  Accept trouble or suffering without getting angry or upset?????? I'm toast.  How many times a day do I become impatient.   So before we go on, let's think about something REALLY important.   Learning about this definition of love is important.  This is GOD's standard.  And I really care about God's standard, because He is the One I want to live for. But pretty much, I know I am going to fail, so rather than let that discourage me, it needs to make me run to God's grace and mercy.  And He is wonderfully gracious and merciful.  And it is His kindness that will lead us to repentance.  When we fail we can run to Him, hide our faces in his shirt so to speak, be assured of His wonderful love for us, and than we can continue on.   So, I have run into God's grace and mercy realizing I will never be able to do this perfectly.  And I am ready to keep going.  How about you?  Please run to Him first before you continue, realizing how much he loves you and accepts you.  He is not shocked.  He knows everything.  But he is glad you want to be more loving, that pleases  Him.   So Lord Jesus, because our finite efforts no matter how small and imperfect please you, we continue on.   St. Augustine said, "Patience is the companion of wisdom."   In order to be patient with others, look for others' needs.  Let them ahead of you, and let their needs come first.  Phil. 2 says "Look out not only for your own interests but all the interest of others."  Patience is not thinking so much about our own needs and rights.  It is being kind to others, being in self control for everyone's benefit.   Patience can stem from empathy, the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.  Empathy is something that I definitely want to learn.

My "small" goals

-Learn to be a good listener with my kids and my husband and my friends in my small groups.  This means getting off the electric device and really listening with my kids and hubby.  This means not thinking through what I am going to say next but really entering into what they are saying.  

- Speak gently and not harshly

-Bear with the weaknesses and failings of others with more grace.  

Well, I already feel a little overwhelmed writing these goals out and I am embarrassed writing them out in front of you because I know that while these are truly the desire of my heart I will fail.  But friend, let's keep each other accountable anyway, not shocked and disgusted when we fail, but giving each other grace and mercy and the time and freedom to learn and continue on by God's grace.  And let's ask the Lord to change our heart and keep our heart sensitive to obey His Holy Spirit.  

Time to remind myself why I am studying this again.  

The greatest commandment is this, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength."  And the second is like it.  "Love your neighbor as yourself."

On these two hinge all the laws and the prophets.

"Now these three remain, faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love."  I Cor. 13

When little ones show you the reality of who you are

The little ones are fighting..... again.  I am outside on the swing and happily reading when I see one of them wiping their eyes, saying it hurts.  Bubbles have flown into their eyes, they have been teased.  Just like yesterday they were  teased.  We try and figure out what happen, "I didn't do it."  "It was an accident".  Another adult saw it.  It wasn't an accident.  There was teasing, provoking.

I get frustrated.  "You must be kind!!!"  And when I am supposed to be in control and the adult, I have to tell myself, to stop, not be angry, and not respond in anger and frustration.

These little ones, how they show me my sin.

I am sorry little ones for the fact that I am not a perfect mama, that I still deal with my frustration and anger too.  We both need a Savior, we both need the Prince of Peace, the Spirit working in and changing our hearts.

If I ever really mess up, please come tell me.  I want to change.  I want to be open to correction from you, while realizing the amazing responsibility of having to correct and train you.

How do I do this?  How do I correct you when I see my own sin so much?  We both need grace.  We both need correction.  We both need love and understanding.

I still need to correct you.  Being unkind and lying is not ok.  It needs to be addressed.  But my own sinful tendency towards overreacting in frustration is not ok either.

We are both pilgrims on this journey.  Someday we will both stand before our Savior, and He will judge us, not on our works but on our hearts towards Him, our softness to His correction, how we learned to love others.

And so I pray for both of us that we will somehow walk in the amazing grace of the gospel, forgetting what is behind, pressing on towards the goal, loving and cherishing, for love is the greatest commandment.

I really do love you my little ones.  Pray for me as I learn to be the mama He has called me to be.