Thursday, February 17, 2011

The Love Chapter

Well, I am sure most of you who are Christian know what I am talking about when I mention the love chapter: 1 Corintians 13. It really has some pretty deep stuff in there. Part of this chapter is included in many, MANY peoples vows of marriage, myself included. Here's the part that is usually included:

"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..."


So that is the background passage. I was in my small group study last night and we were getting pretty deep into this week chapter. A lot of progress was made in opening up our minds to other people thoughts. This passage wasn't even part of our lesson but the instructor closed with this. He said that this passage alone is said so often at weddings but often it means nothing to those saying it. He said that what we needed to do is replace the word "love" with "your name" and then recite it to our loved ones. It will really change the way you see yourself and it will really change the way your spouse sees you. So here is my passage to my husband, James:


4 Dawn is patient, Dawn is kind. Dawn will not envy, Dawn does not boast, Dawn is not proud. 5 Dawn does not dishonor others, Dawn is not self-seeking, Dawn is not easily angered, Dawn keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Dawn does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 Dawn always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.8 Dawn never fails...


Talk about some deep DEEP stuff. So I am breaking this down even further for myself into each seperate promise. Because that is what these are, promises.


Dawn is patient= A hard one for me as seen in some of my previous blogs. But I am going to work harder on this.

Dawn is kind= I think that I am a pretty kind person but I know I can do better.

Dawn will not envy= I have never been an envious person so this one is easy for me.

Dawn does not boast=This one can be hard to do but I will check myself from now on when I am boastful.

Dawn is not proud=Another hard one because both of us like to be right all the time.

Dawn does not dishonor others=I know I can make James feel horrible sometimes. I am going to stop dishonoring him.

Dawn is not self-seeking=OUCH! Really, really eye opening here!

Dawn is not easily angered=This goes right back to the patience.

Dawn keeps no records of wrongs=Yeah, this is the biggest problem with me. When I read this it really touched a nerve which is actually a good thing.

Dawn does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth=Sometimes I find myself happy about others failures. Does that make me a bad person? No, just something else I need to work on.

Dawn always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres=Another thing I think I am pretty good at but can always improve on.

Dawn never fails=Funny that all of this is stuff I have to work on but I know by this that I will never fail at my marriage, my friendships or whatever is in my life.


So yeah, pretty deep things. But I think by putting my name in the places that I have, that I have been given a more important vision as to how God wants me to be like a good wife, mother and friend.

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