Friday, March 30, 2012

Faith in Action Friday: Our Love Life

If you know me, I cannot stand The Message translation of the Bible. It drives me bonkers, don't get me started.

However, the other day I was studying LOVE. I had read this wonderful post over at Raising Homemakers, and I just needed to dive in and glean more. I looked at many translations online to get a better picture of what it was really saying.

It was about the outward appearance of our homes vs. the inward atmosphere. I truly believe that our homes should be a place of peace and a welcome haven from the world, but that doesn't just mean that I've purged my clutter, have a menu plan, or even have a nightly devotional at the dinner table.

It has to mean that the inward appearance of our hearts need to be filled with God's love in order to really have a peaceful retreat. We can look great to everyone that comes by and look like we have it all together, but if the minute those people leave we go back to screaming and treating each other terribly, we don't really have a home filled with God's love, we are hypocrites and are putting on a fake front.

Our close family members are the people who really know who we are, they know the imperfect, struggling sheep that are desperately trying to follow the Shepherd's guiding. They see the true us and if we are putting on a front for others, they will have a mixed up view of us and our Lord.

It boils down to Love. Love for Christ and love for each other.

In her article, Amy, shows how 1 Corinthians 13 has to be the springboard for everything we do in life. It's caused me to take a step back and really look at my heart and actions. I really want to dig deep into each of the points in this verse. I hope to do a more in depth look as I study through these goals and really see how I can apply them to our home, the way I treat my husband and kids, and what the true atmosphere of our home really is.

The Bible really breaks it down into applicable instructions on how to create a peaceful atmosphere in our homes and lives and The Message makes 1 Corinthians 13 even more simpler, "If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. 2If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. 3-7If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.


8-10Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.
11When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.
12We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
13But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

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