I am a blessed woman. Period. End of Story.
I have a wonderful husband, four amazing children, great friends, wonderful family, a calling that I am passionate about, and a God who loves me and has called me by name.
I am blessed beyond words. However, I sometimes wonder if I am treating those gifts with the love and respect that I should. I am like everyone else and can be cranky in the mornings, stressed out in the afternoons, and busy in the evenings. On those days when I feel like I need to “gut check” myself on how I am showing love to others here is what I do:
I turn to the passage in the bible that is often called the Love Chapter and I read it:
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
- “Love is patient, love is kind. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in sin, but rejoices with truth. It always protects, always hopes, always trusts, always perseveres. Love never fails.”
- But then I do something different… I substitute my name for the word love in the passage and am often very humbled by what
- I read:
- “Christie is patient, Christie is kind. Christie is not rude, Christie is not self-seeking, Christie is not easily angered. Christie keeps no record of wrongs. Christie does not delight in sin, but Christie rejoices with truth. Christie always protects, Christie always hopes, always trusts, always perseveres. Christie never fails.”
- OUCH.
- It never fails that there are some of these biblical charatistics of love that feel like a punch in the stomach to me as I realize that I have not shown patience that day or I was easily angered at something small.
- This litmus test in 1 Corinthians is a powerful way to keep yourself accountable to how you show love to others in your life. If you have not done this before than I challenge you today to try it on yourself and find out what characteristics of love you need to develop more so you can love those in your life deeper.
Christie I love this….
I particularly like the way you SUBSTITUTED your name in this Scripture…..I am going to start doing this…Being ACCOUNTABLE for yourself, WOW that does make you THINK….
Thank you for writing this….I truly enjoyed it…