What do others see?...

When others look at you, what do they see?

The Word says that, "they will know we are Christians by our love!" Do people see "love" when they look at you? In my life I know there are times where I am unloving; Attitude plays a big part in that and yes we must keep that in check because it effects the way we feel and how we deal with others.

I want to know, "do you portray TRUE love though?" The kind of love that says to people, "I love you no matter what! Come to me just as you are! Nothing that you've done could ever seperate me from you!" If those words sound familar they are. It is the words God has told to each of us.

I think the translation below, maybe New Living translation, describes it well.

1 Corinthians 13 teaches us The Way of Love:

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If 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. If 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.

Love 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.

When 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.

We 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!

But 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.

Show someone that you love them today! Don't buy them anything. Don't tell them that you love them with words. A simple smile (simple, but so underated), an act( remember, not buying them anything), not demanding perfection from them.(ouch)

L-O-V-E is an action word. It takes effort to do. I think that is why it is hard sometimes. Most of the time, it does not come natural. We love, because He, Jesus, first loved us!