One unknown author describes love this way: It is keeping silent when your words would hurt; it is patience when your neighbor is curt; it is deafness when a scandal flows; it is thoughtfulness for others’ woes; it is promptness when duty calls; it is courage when misfortune falls.” Now here is what the Apostle Paul said about love, found in 1 Corinthians CH. 13, “If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.” Of course, our challenge is not merely to know what love is. Our challenge is to practice it day in and day out. We do that best by yielding ourselves to the Spirit of God, and let him love others through us.
