*the excellence of love, more than valentine wishes

When we say Valentine's, four letters come to mind. It is true, volumes have been written on this topic. So I will not regress, but just share what is important to me on this topic at this time in my life. 


Love.  A word, we have no doubt seen a lot of in our market place this past month.  Hallmark was abundantly stocked with beautiful Valentine cards for just about everyone in your life.  The market place has an over abundance of this and that in which they will gladly sell you in order that you might profess your love to someone in your life. I am not really suggesting that anything is wrong with gifts. I like a gift as much as the next person. The love I am thinking of and writing about today is a love that endures, that is shown when it is undeserved or when it is unexpected.

 What is love? I mean really -what is love? Is it that fuzzy wuzzy feeling we get when we kiss our beloved? Or that feeling we have when there is constant mutual agreement between us, smooth sailing? Is it the beaming feeling of pride we get when our child obeys or makes the grades we desire him or her to make? Or when they make the right choices in life's situations? So what is it when we have a misunderstanding with our husband, or what if our child continually disobeys? What if the children do not study or complete task as we ask them to do?  Does that mean the love goes out the window? Honestly, sometimes I find myself perhaps not loving at all.  I have had the privilege of being reminded to really look at love these past few weeks by a fellow blogger (and adopted daughter). 


This love that we are to have is one that few of us have mastered, we are human. While that is no excuse, it is true that we all are guilty of not always yielding to the Holy Spirit, who gently guides us in this love.   I don't know about you, but I don't always show this sacrificial love, this agape.  Love is a choice. It is not an emotion, a fuzzy feeling of sorts.  By yielding myself to the Holy Spirit daily, I am able to live a life that is motivated by love.  All aspects of my life.  Now that is revolutionary! I need this love, I need this guidance! 

Love is the unity that will paint the portrait of Christ, so that the world can see what He really looks like. 

The Excellence of Love

 ¹If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. (Lord, let us not be found guilty of this. Let the gifts you have given us, be fruitful by teaming them with love)
 ²If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. (Nothing. Oh Lord, no. I don't want to be a nothing.)

 ³And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. (Father, help my actions to be born of love, not of self benefits of some sort. I want my actions to store up treasures in Your Kingdom!)

 ⁴Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,  (not jealous, doesn't brag, isn't arrogant... please forgive me.. and help me to Love like You do) 
⁵does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,
 ⁶does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
 ⁷bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (ALL things, this takes love.. OK.. this love you speak of.. help me by your Holy Spirit to have this always) 
⁸Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.
 ⁹For we know in part and we prophesy in part;
 ¹⁰but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.
 ¹¹When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.
 ¹²For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.
 ¹³But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.  (I love this, because without agape there is no faith or hope!)

(NASB taken from www.biblegateway.com)