1 Corinthians 13:2

I got this forwarded email from my moncheri and her mummy. And I feel very compelled to share. Sometimes I forget and fall short, and expect the unrealistic expectations. Then I learn to be patient , patient with God & I feel guilty that I left Him so far behind in my life. No doubt I pray every night , no doubt I talk to Him all the time I feel lost & confused but He is no longer a pillar in my life the way it should be. For some odd reason I left church a couple of years ago, unable to deal with certain setbacks & the uncertainities I have in my life , unwilling to share and to trust Him, wanting to do things my way and refusing to be judge by the very people who watched me grow so off I went. I promise you God, Im heading back , I might not go back to the same church that I always pass by and have a tudge in my heart strings but I will go back. Step by step . Thank you for never forsaking me.






".if I have faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing."
1 Corinthians 13:2 (NIV)

As the holidays approach, I have to be careful about developing an overly
ideal view of love. Sometimes I'm guilty of setting the expectations so high
of what a 'love filled' Christmas should be that it dooms me to feeling
disappointed and grumpy. Ever been there?

Well, this year I am feeling challenged to look at love a little
differently. I don't want to repeat a habit that I've had from the past
where I expect unrealistic things from those I love. I used to hold out the
little cup of my heart to my husband, "Will you fill my empty spaces? Will
you do that one really romantic thing that makes me feel like I'm the most
terrific and special woman in the world?"

Then I would hold it out to my children, "Will you fill up my empty spaces?
Will you do something that makes me look really good as a mom so I'll feel a
little more validated?"

Then I would hold it out to my friends, "Will you fill up my empty spaces?
Will you provide something today that makes me feel more included and
significant?"

Maybe Christmas is an odd time to consider such things.

Or, maybe this season celebrating Jesus is the perfect time to hit the reset
button on my sometimes frail heart. Love is a tricky thing. Our hearts were
created to crave it. But misplaced expectations from love can wreak havoc in
a person's heart.

God proclaims in 1 Corinthians 13:8 that love never fails. And in the
quietness of my heart that verse makes me squirm a bit. I see love failing
all the time. Or do I?

If my only view of love is what it will give me, love from others will fail
me every time. It's not that love fails. It's that other people were never
meant to be my God. Even a great husband, wonderful children and a thriving
ministry can never truly fill me up, right all my wrongs, and soothe those
deep insecurities. Not at Christmas. Not at any other time of the year.

No, I can't read 1 Corinthians chapter 13 with eyes hungry to see what love
should give me and then demand it from those around me. I should read those
steadfast Scriptures with the realization that this is the kind of love God
gives to me. And this is the kind of love I can choose to give to other
people.

I can choose that my love will be patient. My love will be kind. My love
won't keep a record of wrongs. (Ouch - that's a hard one, right?)

I can choose that my love will protect and persevere.

And I can choose to lay the cup of my heart at Jesus' feet and stop
twirling, twirling, twirling...hoping- demanding- that those around me do
things for me they were never meant to do.

Interestingly enough, when I read 1 Corinthians 13 again this morning I
found an odd yet perfect verse toward the end of this chapter. "When I was a
child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a
child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me" (verse 11).

Yes indeed. How funny I never connected that verse about putting away
childish things with 1 Corinthians 13 - known as the chapter of love. Oh how
we have the propensity to grow in other areas while keeping such a childish,
selfish view of love.

Love isn't what I have the opportunity to get from this world. Love is what
I have the opportunity to give. And I guess there's no more appropriate time
to remember this than Christmas.

Dear Lord, thank You for the ability to see love in the proper way. Help me
to know how to be filled with Your love so I don't try to get others to fill
my empty spaces. Lord, give me wisdom with each of my relationships. Make me
a woman that properly lives the principals in 1 Corinthians 13. In Jesus'
Name, Amen.