And thus ends a week expressing words of love.....of what love is and is not.
Husband and I did many things together today. It began with a breakfast out, then a bit of shopping followed by tea at Shananigans Dessert and Coffee Shop, then washing clothes, a chicken sandwich supper and some TV watching. I call that a pretty decent day with the one I love.
Before I got up for the day, husband had already put my bouquet of roses on the kitchen table, complete with a love card (with a coupon attached enabling me to redeem various love-themed experiences!!) and a box of chocolates....all ready to greet me when I entered the room.
I, on the other hand, had made him a home-made Valentine. Sometimes my family "likes" my creativity??!!:-) I think he liked it.
He's saving our Love Supper for tomorrow - steak and lobster!!
This past week I've thought about and written about the verses from I Corinthians 13, the Love chapter (The Message). Here's how The New Living Translation talks about the same chapter (being Valentines Day, it may be worth a read through to the end):
"1 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. 2 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. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;[a] but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages[b] and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10 But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless.
11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.[c] All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love."
4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages[b] and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10 But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless.
11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.[c] All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love."
May the truth of the last sentence give you hope, hope to continue loving, hope to see love in others where it doesn't seem possible, hope to keep reaching out to a God who loves you....even when it doesn't seem he even exists.
Blessings on you this night.....
No comments:
Post a Comment