Week 19 - #Prepare - “Love"
"Outdoing One Another In Love"
Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showinghonor. (Romans 12:10)
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from apure heart... (1 Peter 1:22)
Finally, all of you, haveunityof mind, sympathy, brotherly love,a tender heart, and ahumblemind. (1 Peter 3:8)
One of my favorite football coaches, Lou Holtz, has been quoted before saying,“I follow three rules: Do the right thing, do the best you can, and always show people you care.”
Oh, how we all need to put these three simple rules into practice with our daily life, and infuse them into our world today!
This week of preparation we focus on love.
How do you show people you care?
Who are the people you love, and who are the people that love you?
Based on our definition of “prepare" what do you need to apply, fix, or establish with your others in regards to love?
I believe the key to prepare for love, lies in one word -intentional.
Whether we speak the words of love directly or we demonstrate through our patience, presence and promotion, we must be intentional in sharing our love for others.
Yes, there are some crossing our paths more difficult to love than others, but in our intentionality we have the opportunity to practice our humility, allowing us to see the best in those otherwise deemed unlovable.
As a human race, we have got to find the way leading to the journey, emulating what Paul exhorted in 1 Peter 1:22: “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart.”
As we mentioned in week one, we must prepare intentionally our “hearts" to become the vessel for loving others.
So where do we start? Wherever you are!
You may currently need reconciliation. Maybe some renewal. Or still yet, choosing to simply start with respect. None will happen without intentionality.
In Romans 12:10 we are reminded to “Love one another with brotherly affection. Out do one another in showing honor.”
Can you imagine if we turned our competitive spirits towards intentionally “showing” how much we care and love others? By outdoing one another in showing honor to all those God places in our lives?
In our preparation for love we must not withhold the love God has for each of us.
Like our heavenly DAD, we must share love, show love, be love.
In 1 Peter 3:8, we read these instructions "Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind."
DADs, let us out do each other in our preparation today, to intentionally show people we care, with brotherly affection, a humble heart and giving honor!
To God be the glory!
DADs, “get in the game”…Today is game day…and so is every day…God gives you! So…C’mon Men Suit Up!
**Today we prepared for love.” Next week we will consider how to discern and prepare for those things we “yearn for!”**
Note:*For this new year of 2021, the combination of my age (understanding my own fragile mortality), this current and ongoing global pandemic, and most recently the personal loss I’ve experienced of one of my students, has amplified the need to land on one word... #Prepare.
In this "pursuit to prepare" I am determined to dedicate the 52 weeks of 2021 blogging every Week about one aspect of preparation God lays on my heart. This week 18 we talk about what it means to "prepare” for life's hurts.
As mentioned in week 1, the word “prepare” means “to establish, fix, or apply.” It conveys the idea of deliberate effort over a prolonged period of time.
