Love Never Fails

God sure has been teaching me a lot lately!!!

Just recently He has been teaching me about love.  His kind of love.  Our family is going through 1 Corinthians 13, and we're going to memorize it.  It's such a wonderful chapter.  So important!!!!!!!!!  Also, at church on Sunday the sermon was on love.  It was pretty amazing!  So, it's all got me thinking about love and what it REALLY means to love someone.  I've heard the quote a lot, "Love is not a feeling, love is a choice".  I believe that you can be "in love" and it's a feeling, but you can't love someone unconditionally with just feelings.  We are all sinners, and it's not even in our power to just love someone like that easily.  We have to pray, and ask God to give us HIS love for others.

At church Mr. Unruh was talking about "loving the people you have a hard time loving".  If you are having a hard time loving someone, then you should try all the more to love them.  You should not avoid them, or slander about them, and their sins.  We have no right to judge anybody!!!!!!!!!  We're all so sinful!  It may be harder for us to get along with someone because they struggle with something we don't, and because it's not our struggle, it somehow seems worse.

I know a couple people who I feel are very hard to love.  It's not very often I feel that way.  I used to be way more prone to not liking people when I was younger.  I am a very critical thinker, and very analytical.  I let it be used in a way to see other's faults instead of virtues.  It was very hard to overcome that tendency.  Now, with God's help I have completely changed!  I still have many sins, but God has given me a love for others that I never had before.  I was a very selfish little girl.  I can't believe how I used to think of others.  Now, one of my biggest pet peeves of others is gossiping.  I can't stand it when anyone is speaking bad about anyone else!!!  Even if I agree, it really makes me upset.  Probably because I struggled with slandering others, and know how bad it feels to judge someone, also what's even worse is when you judge them prematurely and then later realize that it wasn't true, or learned to love them so much in spite of their problems.  It made me feel so guilty to have thought things about others.

I want to try really hard to reach out to the unlovely and people who are harder for me to love.  They may need it more than other people who I find easy to love.  

Also, the people I have a hard time loving right now I don't even know well.  They're hardened, and just not nice!  Who knows what their lives are like?  I see so many people at Branson Landing who I know need to be loved.  They may look all cocky, or seem prideful, but sometimes I can see a longing underneath.  A sensitive heart that has been broken many times.  They're hurting.  They're afraid of this world and don't know how to live a joyful life.  They're losing hope and don't have Christ's saving grace.  It's so sad!  It makes me want to just reach out to them and share that I know someone who can, and WILL take away all their pain, their past.  It's so hard to see them just walking along not knowing the peace I have each day.  They don't know the purpose for their lives.  They long for love, think they've found it, realize that the person isn't perfect and breakup, or get divorced.  It's awful.  They don't realize that no person can satisfy that longing for love.  Only our precious Savior can.  Romance isn't enough.  Oh that they only knew!!!!  So much hurt and pain...and for what?
We, as humans, are so quick to give up.  You make a friend, become "best friends" and then decide that you aren't as much alike as you thought and one most likely will find a new "best friend".  We're all looking for fulfillment.  We want to feel special.  I'm as guilty in this.  I've never actually had a best friend.  I didn't want to be dropped by a friend.  I have some very, very special friends who I love very much, but not just one, besides Laura (my amazing sister).  I'm not saying that having a best friend is bad.  I just have seen some dear friends get very hurt after being "best friends" with someone, just to have them find another "best friend" and forget you in their excitement about the new friend.  It's pretty hard to go through that!  I think having good, steady friends is the best!  I love my true friends.  The ones I can trust completely to not "drop" me for someone else and not even care about me anymore.
  Have you ever just been walking somewhere and see someone who just doesn't have a smile on their face?  Instead of just looking away and thinking they must be having a bad day, I try to smile at them and see how they react.  Sometimes they just look away and move on, but other times it's SO satisfying!  Their face brightens up and you see that your smile made their day.  Just the simple act of love.  Showing someone the joy of Christ.  It always makes me feel so wonderful!!!  I look around for someone else who I can smile at! :) It's so much fun!  That's showing love, I think.
I just think it's so important.  It's the second greatest commandment anyway, after we should love the Lord our God!!!  That's pretty huge!!!  People treat it as way less important.
How much time do we show love to others?  I bet that if we decided to look around us in search of ways to love others our lives would change drastically!  We may think we love people already, but what if we looked for ways to show Christ's love?  What would happen?  How many people would be blessed and see God through us?  That would be an amazing testimony to others!  It would maybe become infectious and you might notice others acting different around you too, because they see how you're acting!
Personally I want to try it!!!  Yes, it would be hard.... I would have a very hard time with my family members.  It's one thing to love at different moments, but it's one thing to make it your goal to love at ALL times.
Who wants to join me? =)

Here's an amazing song by Brandon Heath called, "Love Never Fails". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nQy-aP_Koo
Here's also another song by him called "Give Me Your Eyes".  It also really correlated with what I was saying!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5AkNqLuVgY&feature=related