Love, the real stuff

  Wow.... it has been a while. Life has been interesting lately.... Maybe in another post I will mention more about it. Right now I want to talk about love. Not that sappy stuff you read about in romance novels or watch in movies, no not even that head-over-heels type that you see in every-day life. I'm talking about actual love. Not affection, not mutual attraction, love. It is entirely different in case you didn't know.
   Let me start with some scripture:

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

  

   So I read it in the NIV, and ESV, and then decided to look at it in a Greek interlinear, and re-write it using the words that I thought made the most sense. (If what I just said doesn't make sense, you need to try using an inter-linear.) This is what I got:

Love is patient, love acts benevolently, it is not jealous, it is not boastful, it is not prideful. It does not act inappropriately or indecently, it does not seek its own pleasure, is not easily exasperated or provoked, it does not dwell on wrongs committed. Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness but in truth. It endures all things, has faith in all things, expects all things, perseveres through all things.

   
In the past couple weeks I have really been contemplating how I can be loving.

• Love is patient. I need to be patient with my parents. I need to be patient with school even when it takes longer than I would like. I need to to have patience concerning the possibility of being in a relationship. If I have patience with my parents, my relationship with them will improve. If I have patience with school I will do better and not be discontent when I'm in school. And if I have patience concerning being in a relationship I will not be distracted by a pursuer while I'm busy with school and will have less chance of making a mess of a relationship.
• Love acts benevolently. To act benevolently means to act with well-meaning or kindness. Let's face it, we all have people we do not like being kind to. Yeah I know those people too. lol But what we don't realize is how we might bless them by being kind. Maybe they are going through some hard stuff, maybe they are stumbling in their walk with God, or maybe they aren't walking with God at all. Whatever the case, we need to be Jesus to them. And that means being kind especially when they don't deserve it and we don't want to.
• Love is not jealous. Me = guilty. I get jealous of a lot of things, but mainly talents. It is terrible, and God is slowly helping me be better about it. I am pretty sure my life without jealousy would be pure bliss. ok I'm exaggerating, but i would enjoy it much more. I am constantly having to check myself and chide myself to not be nasty to someone simply because i am envious. Shakespeare was spot on when he called envy a green-eyed monster.
• Love is not boastful. This goes hand-in-hand with pride. It is prideful attitudes that make us boast. Some verses about boasting:
  2 Corinthians 12:5  "I will boast about a man like that (Christ), but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses."
  1 Corinthians 5:6 "Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough?"
  Galatians 6:14 "May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world."
  1 Corinthians 10:17 "But, “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”"
• Love is not proud. How often have I been proud of my own abilities or accomplishments when God is the one who gave me them in the first place and he could take them away just as easily?
• Love does not act inappropriately or indecently. I think the application for this one is self-explanatory.
• Love does not seek its own pleasure. In other words, love is selfless. Always looking out for others, always putting others' needs and desires above its own. Desiring the happiness of others more than its own happiness.
• Love is not easily exasperated or provoked (to anger). I can live this out by controlling my temper, not allowing myself to be irritated easily, but mostly by controlling my tongue.
• Love does not dwell on wrongs committed. Lately the way I have been living this out is by forgetting how an acquaintance of mine has wronged me, and trying to show kindness to this person.

And I will finish this later. :)

~Melody