Mary Crisp Jameson - copyright material







Thursday, September 22, 2016

Love

     I have been intending to write about love for the past week, but have not taken the time to sit in "A Friendly Shade" and decide how to get started.   Love takes so many different directions.  I believe love has to be developed.  To have love we need forgiveness even without being asked, we need to develop an intent not to hurt others, and we need to eliminate self pride.  So I knew that to talk about love, there was no way to cover every aspect that needed to be considered.
     Then as I was watching a video on Facebook about a farmer's presentation to the Shark Tank, I realized how his heart changed the perspective of the Tank members.  He was full of humbleness and genuine caring for the farmers in the area where he lived.  He was demonstrating a love which was coming from his heart.  If we don't have true love it simple cannot flow from our heart.  For this reason, I think I can truthfully say the heart and love are connected.  
     In Proverbs 4:23 we are told "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it."  Therefore, we cannot put love on a shelf and just take it down occasionally like a trinket, dust it off, and expect to use it from time to time and see results.   Others, who we are around every day, see how we use love; they recognize us for who we really are.  Matthew 15: 18 shows us this.  "But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them." 
     If we don't have love in our hearts, what does that make us?  I think we can find the answer in 1 Corinthians 13, "If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing."
     How should we handle love?  In Proverbs 3:3 we find, "Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart."  From this I find love to be tender and we strenghen it by protecting it.  We endeavor to keep it safe, stored away in our heart so we keep our love growing for others. 
     Who should we show love to and how?  Matthew 22:39 answers that question, "And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’"
     I realize it is hard to love those who are unlovable, but what more does the scripture have to say:    Take a look at what Luke 6:32 says, "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them.  You see, "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." (1 Corinthians 13)
     Finally, but certainly not least,  is the commandment on who we should love the most.  "Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'" And another scripture cautions to beware of where we place our treasure:  "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."   Where is our love, our treasure?  Are we willing to set pride aside to give love to others?



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