The Journey - It's All About Love

I had such a busy and blessed Thanksgiving that I didn't get a message out on my blog this week.  So Sorry.

First order of business - We have a winner from last week's guest blogger. 

Congratulations, Patti Shene! 

You have won a copy of Dandelion Moon! 

Over the Thanksgiving Holiday I enjoyed precious time with family. I was reminded of my many blessings.

The weekend stirred up my internal thought processes. The idea of love and what it truly looks like whirled around in my mind and my heart. 

None of us is good at loving all the time, but let's be honest, some people are better at loving than others. I've decided that a person with a warm and gentle heart always beats out someone who has their act together. We know those people. They are the ones who always look good - who say the right thing - help the poor - make wise choices - and are successful (in the eyes of the world). But what about the warm and fuzzy component? It's gone missing. 

The world would have us believe that the appearance of goodness is what matters ... and the world would be wrong. The world sets a low standard when it comes to how we should love others. God's Word, on the other hand, sets a high standard. But any other bar of measurement is inadequate. 

1st Corinthians 13 says it so well. Please read and take time to reflect. What is God telling us?

  If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn't love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God's secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn't love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it, but if I didn't love others, I would have gained nothing.
  Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
  Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when full understanding comes these partrial things will become useless.
  When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. all that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
  Three things will last forever - faith, hope, and love - and the greatest of these is love.

Love one another. We have only one chance at this life. There are no do-overs. So, let's do our best.

Grace and peace to you from God,

Bonnie