Love is....

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.

When I think of all the things that love is...I realize I've been a lot more of what love ISN'T, than what love IS. In fact, as I look over the list, I think the only one that I can truly say that I don't have a problem with is the rejoicing over an injustice. Sadly, the rest of them have been a challenge for me. Sometimes I am challenged by them daily. Galatians 5:6 tells us that faith works by love. Oh boy, I need both!!

Today happens to be my birthday, and birthday's are usually a time for looking back and of course, looking forward. I have a lot to look forward to this year and I believe that God is preparing me for more wonderful things to come. I seem to hear Him whisper in my ear, "love me more, love people more, and watch what great and awesome things I will do". My birthday prayer this evening has been the same prayer I heard my Grandpa Burns pray a couple of years ago. "Help me Lord, to love you more and to love people the way you love them". I'm ready to be changed from the inside out...to love Him more...from the inside out. I'm ready to be more like Him, to love like Him, to walk and talk like Him.

1 John 4:16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.