Love in all things

This is a sequel (in a way) to "The Man You Love" post...

As Christians, from the time we are in almost our first years of Sunday school, we are taught about love. The famous story comes to mind about the Disciples asking Christ "what is the most important commandment of all?":
Matthew 22:36-40

36 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”
 37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

So loving God is foremost in all things! Can I say though, if you love someone, you will do everything you can to please them?
If this is the case, then this calls for a serious heart response! If God is our "first love" then our lives should reflect our devotion to Him, we should continue to try and make our relationship grow in Him for the rest of our lives! You cannot say you love someone if you take the gift they give you and ignor them from then onwards! Growing in God takes a full lifetime! Our love for Him should grow every day, just like an earthly relationship. Another thing also, as a female it must be somewhat easier for us in someways to realise that God is in control of all things than guys. I think our problem can be relinquishing control when we assume we can do things so much better than Him. So the point I am making is, how can you love God if you can't TRUST Him and the fact that He is truly in control, whether you give it to Him or not. I personally struggle with the control factor, that is for sure!

Now to move on to the SECOND most important commandment:
How can we love our neighbors as ourselves? Well for one thing, we look after ourselves every morning! We groom ourselves everyday, and we become presentable, and refreshed, getting rid of all the dirt and things that marr our ability to leave the bathroom. So I suppose you could say, every day your relationships are to be renewed and worked on! I think we would all agree that beauty takes time effort and grooming, wouldn't you? So for our relationships to stay beautiful, we need to groom it!

If we hurt ourselves we will generally disinfect the area to prevent an infection. Why? Infections can kill! Hurts, anger, and any negative emotions in a relationship need to also be disinfected, as they can kill our relationship with others!
Disinfectant only works for a short time after the injury is incurred, as it then can go straight to our blood stream and cause harm. Just like if hurts and all other negative emotions in a relationship need to be cleared up straight away, or else the infection will set in!

Patience, Peace, Kindness, Gentleness, and Self-Control all can basically come under the banner of love. If you have love, you also have these fruits in a package, and all are essential in a relationship. Relationships are not necessarily just our boyfriend/girlfriends, it includes EVERYONE we know, all our friends and family. God wishes that even the people we dislike, that we will love.

One of the problems faced in relationships is lack of communication, and it has to be fixed straight away or else it can ruin our relationships. In the "Bad Communication" label also comes the "too much communication" with people around us about our relationship. If we feel we can't communicate with the person in question, we may talk to others unecessarily about our problems with said person. This effectively shows a lack of love. Patience and self control come into the picture now in this situation as no negative comment about any body else should EVER cross our lips to someone else altogether.

We need to learn to wait on God when these times seem unbearable, and rest in His peace.

God wants us to be like the moon... He knows that we are just a big rock stuck in our own part of the universe, cratered and blemished, holding no beauty of our own. The thing is though, God is like the Sun!! His light shines on us, we are supposed to reflect it, and then we are no longer seen as our sinful selves, but instead, we will shine the light of God, in all things, and we can light up the dark with the light and love of Christ!

You are a gift...

My little sister went to a kids club on this holiday her, my family and myself were on. The kids went to a place that was used as a night club, to have a disco, soft drink from the bar etc. My parents did not realise this had happened and so therefore she went along and watched an amateur night club scene, the kids being ages 11-17.

When we came to pick her up, we watched all these children flaunting their bodies, trying to get the opposite sex's attention, and it would be an understatement to say that we were shocked. I think the hardest part of the whole night was trying to explain to her why we don't agree with the whole night club scene, especially not for her age.

I did however hit upon inspiration in my own mind. I said to my little sister:
"*Katie, you are like a gift, a treasure chest even. You are full of beautiful individual treasures all wrapped up in this gift. This gift, being you, is for your future husband only. God made Adam, and then he made Eve to be his helper, you are the Eve to an Adam, you have been made for one man. When girls flaunt their bodies, they are trying to get some guys attention, meaning that the guys gifts are not kept intact for his Eve. And if you have many different boyfriends, you will always leave a part of your heart and therefore one of your smaller gifts with those guys. Eventually, when you find the man The Lord has in store for you, you are missing a large percentage of your gifts away, and your husband gets an incomplete package."

"Remember that you are a beautiful gift from God to your future husband, and it is the best thing of all to be able to give all of yourself to him."

It may not bode well with even some Christians, but please don't think I am being judgmental, each to His own, and I pray that if you are a young girl, think really long and hard about who you give parts of yourself to, and also making sure you preserve others as best you can as well, If they are not your man or woman, you have no right to take any of their gifts, you are depriving someone else of something that I am sure you would want yourself.

You are special, a beautiful/handsome creation of God, Please never think that you are any less than this when you go into relationships.

How does a Christian woman know she is in love?

Love, I believe is one of the most important characters In a Christian. At Sunday school we get taught what is means to love others "as ourselves" and multiple other teachings that doesnt really mean anything at the time.

Then a stage comes when you question your feelings for a special someone in your life. I have to be honest and say I am not married, I have never had a boyfriend (or at least not since I was five), but there has been times when I have questioned my love for someone I know.

Until just recently, I had no real idea on how you know if you are truly in love with someone, and then I read the Christy Miller series by Robin Gunns Jones, and found myself enraptured in how beautiful the love was between the major two characters, in the book I watched them grow, as a couple, grow up in maturety and also the most important grow in God.

It really gave me an eye opener as to what true love is about. I then read the "when God writes your love story" book by eric ludley and his wife. It affirmed to me that true love not only exists, its real for anyone, of any age to experience.

So I thought I could write down a few verses about love that may help you to understand what I did about love.

first of all there is:

Luke 10:27

So he answered and said "you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind" and "your neighbour as yourself."

Most of you will probably have heard this verse before in church or in sunday school, and probably heard it that many times, you may have shut your mind and heart to what it truly means, if not forgive my assumptions, because I know I did.

Have you ever thought about the part that says: "you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind"?

Could it be possible that before you can truly love any man, you have to love God more, and with all of you, every thing that you do must be done to try most of the time to please God? I know I never really thought about this until just recently. Before you can love a man, do you first need to learn to love God and (this is where the neighbour part comes in) everyone you meet and come into contact with? does this help you to keep a stronger relationship with your "Mr. right"?

To all of these I believe yes. It is up to you though to decide what you take out of this scripture. For the whole time Christ Jesus was on this earth, He showed just how much he loved EVERYONE He came in contact with, he even loved those people who abused, abondoned, rejected, and tried to destroy Him. He said: "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."

Have you forgiven people that do this sort of thing to you? Can you truthfully say you LOVE them? well I will leave that with you.
the second verse is:

1 Corinthians 13

..........and though i have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, love never fails......

If you have found love with a special man, that fills all or most of these love requirements, well done, if not, you will have to decide what to do next. I know that this is what I will measure my future love by. I hope this helps.