The greatest of these is love

I have been keeping up with my daily Bible readings on marriage and parenting, however life has gotten in the way. I was hoping to keep a daily posting of these passages along with a few words on what I got from reading them. I'm not finding the time to get to the computer long enough to write every day. I planned on just posting the verses, but even that turned out to be a tedious process. So instead I want to write about a verse that has really touched me the most, and that was coincidentally in both reading plans.

1 CORINTHIANS 13:1-13

"1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.


13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

I have no idea how many times I have read this passage. From the Bible, it has been turned into artwork

http://www.etsy.com/listing/71576836/love-is-1corinthians-13-wall-art-8x10?ref=pr_shop

It is the most popular verse read at weddings

Photo Credit

Stacie Orrico set it to music and made it one of my favorite songs.

It is everywhere! But admittedly, until yesterday I have only read 1 Corinthians 13 from a selfish view: how someone should love me. It was only when I read this chapter during the Parenting reading plan that God showed me this is how I am supposed to love my children, that this is how I do try to love my children (Love is patient), and that I need to show love to others the same as I do with my children.

When I got to the Marriage reading plan and saw the same verse for the same day, it was like someone smacked me in the head with the biggest Bible they could find. How many times have I read articles saying you should see your husband the way you see your children? I thought of the times Brian and I got into an argument. As I would sit there silently stewing in my anger I said that verse over and over to myself, wondering why he wasn't being patient, why he wasn't being kind, why he didn't love. There I was keeping every record of his every wrong. Yesterday I realized that I had been nothing.

"but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears." My understanding of this chapter is complete, seeing from the side of the selfish and now the selfless. I do deserve to be loved as it is described in 1 Corinthians 13. But even more so do I deserve to open myself to love others in such a complete and wholly Christlike way. I pray that God keeps reminding me of this in my day to day interactions with others!