I don't know about you, but for most of my life I've tried to be the best Christian I can. I have done many of the things a "good Christian" should do. But there are times that I have completely missed the point. Take a moment to read 1 Corinthians 13 (it's 13 verses long), then come back here for some thoughts and reflections.
This passage is one of the most popular wedding readings because it deals with love. If you think about a wedding, the couple getting married are entering into a covenant relationship where they are publicly showing their desire to live in unity with each other.
The thing that you will not hear in vows is, "I promise that we will never fight, never have a disagreement, and will, at all times, completely agree with one another." When we enter into a relationship with God, we are also entering into a covenant relationship with God's people, the Church. Paul was writing to a new church made up of diverse people who were used to fighting and brawls.
Go back and reread verses 4-7. This is the description of what love is and what love does. Love needs to be patient and kind because we are all people who have our own thoughts and ideas of how to live life. We will disagree. We will hurt one another. But if we live out verses 4-7, then we can figure out how to live in unity with one another even while having conflict. And that is far greater than the greatest miracle or gift that we could ever receive.
Here's how to respond to this post: Pick a description of love that you would like to work on from verse 4-7. Why did you pick that one? How will it help you in preparing for the mission trip? Write down your answers in the comments.
-Norm
I would want to work on having less pride. I picked this one because tend to have to much pride and not be open to other people's ideas that they have. It will prepare me for the mission trip because I will be able to work with other people and their ideas.
ReplyDeleteLove always perseveres. It is very hard to love someone after something bad happens in that relationship but it says in these verses that love should persevere, which means no matter what happens you should always show love.
ReplyDeleteIn verse 5 it says that love is not easily angered. I need to work on not letting things people say bother me. This will help me in preparing for the mission trip by being able to focus on others more than myself. If I focus on others and the good we are doing for others I will feel great.
ReplyDeleteThe entire description of love in these verses are challenging. When looking at them all, it gives a definition of love that is not recognized by the world. Our culture looks at love as a feeeeeling. Yet, this passage describes love with action words. It talks about patience and kindness, persevering and not self-seeking, protecting and trusting. The act of loving is full of action. To be honest, I need to work on most of these areas, but I am going to choose: not self-seeking. I think that by focusing on the needs of others, instead of myself, I will begin to show all the other traits of love too. During any time you are with a group of people, it can be difficult to think about what is best for the group as a whole instead of what you want. I want to focus on others and not myself. I believe that will open the opportunity to show love to many others.
ReplyDelete"It keeps no record of wrongs" and "It always protects" are the two that apply to me the most. I can stay mad at someone for a ridiculously long amount of time if I try hard enough. And "It always protects" is because I should start looking out for other people and helping/protecting them. Not just myself.
ReplyDelete(Jada Moore)
ReplyDeletein verse 7 it says Love never gives up and that's what I do I never give up on things because I know that god love's me. that's what keeps me going though on things,
Love always trusts, and that in of itself is a very hard thing for me. I think by putting complete faith in God and those within the missions team, things will become more organized and relaxed. I won't feel the need to take charge because I feel "obligated" to do it. I'll try to work on putting a little more trust in others to help me and help one another. :)
ReplyDeleteKind. I chose this because sometimes I'm not very nice and I know it. If you upset me I often can lose sight of love and be really nasty back. I don't care what they think of me when they were rude first. However, I am trying to work on that!
ReplyDeleteLove is patient. I can't wait for anything. It needs to be done when I say so, it needs to arrive on my time. I hate waiting. This will help with the missions trip by helping me be patient with all the others that are going and giving me the patience to wait and hear what God wants me to do.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many good ones to choose from, but I'm going to choose love is not easily angered. I have been trying to focus on not being easily angered for a while now. My largest amount of conflict is with co-workers. Praying about it daily is helpful. I'm far from perfect when dealing with that emotion. But when I do, it helps to get my head and my heart in the right place with other things that I do, including preparing myself for this trip.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to work on love is patient. This is because I'm not a very patient person in the first place so when I want something done I want it done right then. This will help, because then I will be able to be more patient with the people around me instead of getting upset when something happens where I need patients.
ReplyDelete"It does not boast" I don't want to make fool of myself on the missions trip by competing to try and do everything better than everyone else. I want to contribute with my team so that we all can feel the satisfaction of accomplishing something great!
ReplyDeleteI want to be Patient and kind to those who have ideas and usually I like to take part in being the leader but I hope that I can solve my problem there.
ReplyDelete"it is no self-seeking" I can be pretty selfish a lot of times, but I hope that I can learn to put God first and in turn learn to put others first. Let others' happiness be my first priority. And while I usually do pretty well with this with those I care about, it is difficult for me to do so with people I don't like or don't know. Serving others always humbles me and helps me to realize that the world doesn't revolve around me.
ReplyDelete"It keeps no record of Wrong." It is very hard for me to not hold grudges. I find myself keeping track of everything someone has done wrong. I want to work on becoming more forgetting. This will help me in preparing for the mission trip just be helping me become a better person.
ReplyDeleteLove always hopes. As strange as it may be a lot of the time I do not have hope for myself. There are so many things in my life, and others around me that just seem hopeless. I don't hope, because I'm afraid of it not getting better. This is what I need to work on. I really need hope. If I can bring it with me on the missions trip, to a place where so many people feel hopeless maybe I can help inspire their hope.
ReplyDelete"Love is patient" I want to work on this on because when I say something like "Oh my gosh! Look at that, I would die for this!" My parents always say things wait til your birthday or Christmas! I hate it.
ReplyDeleteThis will help me on the mission trip by listening to the teachers and other adults and doing what I'm told and if I ask for something and they say "NO!" I just need to realize I will get things in time.
"Love is kind" is something I want to work on so that I can be nicer to my siblings.
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