Love is….

This morning my devotional reading was based on 1 Corinthians 13.

These well known passages are read at weddings…Love is patient, Love is kind….

I have read and heard teachings that urge me to write my name in where it says “love” so that I am reminded this is the goal.

Laura is patient…Laura is kind.

The author of my 2022 devotional* wrote about plugging in “God” for love since God, as we know, IS love.

This was eye-opening and so I grabbed my Bible to further explore what it is like to read the passage using God as a fill-in.

Imagine my surprise when I read in the margins a note I penned on July 18, 2020 from THAT morning’s devotional reading.

From the same giver of my annual devotional for a number of years, my dear friend Lisa, I was reading from Faith That Matters*. This is a book collection from a variety of Christian leaders’ writings.

That day it had been Jame Bryan Smith who wrote about God being love and we can learn about His character by substituting His name into the passage.

Slow to learn, am I….slow to learn.

So I had written that morning back in the summer of 2020:

Patient – puts up with faults without grumbling

Kind – doesn’t coerce

Is not boastful – doesn’t try to impress

Is not rude – never needs to offend or manipulate

Does not keep a record of wrong – don’t keep account of mistakes and casts my sin as far as the east is from the west

Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things – sees the potential for good

Endures all things, never ends – eternal

Today’s devotion added that when I look at the list and I know that this is what He wants to grow in me, I realize how short I fall.

But in my weakness….He is my strength.

In what I lack…He is my provision.

A good reminder today of what I was already made aware of once before.

I need refreshings and reminders regularly.

We all do.

Have a great start to the week and may the Lord bless us continually to be reminded of the things He has taught us and may we grow in wisdom and knowledge of Him <3

*Resources:

Be Still and Blessed; devotions for mothers, Natasha Marcellus; BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC. 2021

faith That Matters; 365 Devotions from Classic Christian Leaders; Harper One, 2018