What's .........Got To Do With It?

I was recently sending a special friend an e-mail with an inside joke, but it got me thinking about something. This friend (and I'm sure some of you will know who I'm talking about in a bit) has been sending group messages so all those people can see it at once. But to this one person, she would say something with blanks in it, as if to confuse us. (Yeah right, like we couldn't figure out "I .... you"! LOL) So anyway, it became a funny joke to my wife and she would send messages with words blanked out and so on. So just the other day, I was reading some old e-mails with those those little messages and I thought of a scripture to send her that I just couldn't resist. It was 1 Cor. 13:4-8 and I sent it just this way:

"... is patient, ... is kind. ... does not envy, ... does not boast, ... is not proud. ... is not rude, ... is not self-seeking, ... is not easily angered, ... keeps no record of wrongs. ... does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ... always protects, ... always trusts, ... always hopes, ... always perseveres. ... never fails."

As I sent that off with a mischievous grin that was noticeable to a blind man, I was reminded of something that I used to think about often when I was dating my wife (then, girlfriend). I had never felt the way I did for anyone before I met Lenna. I wanted to know if these feelings were what God considered love. So as I was praying, I felt the Lord telling me to read that passage of scripture. It was kind of a checklist that I would use to see if what I felt for Lenna was really love. So, instead of using the word "love", I would put my name in place of it-Zach is patient, Zach is kind, etc... and went all the way through the list. I found out I still needed work on some of those, but I used it as a guideline for God's definition of "love". When Lenna and I got married, we spent time going through this list as well and asked if we were showing those characteristics to each other.

It's been a while since we've been through this checklist together. With our 3rd year anniversary coming up, it seems like it would be a great time to see if we've improved or if there's more work needed. For those of you reading this who are married, I think that would be a good devotional time for the two of you tonight or sometime in the near future.

And this doesn't only have to apply to married couples either. This is a great checklist to go through in your daily life. Jesus said that's how people will know we are His. If we LOVE each other. Are you patient with your co-worker? Do you envy your neighbor's pay raise that got them the new car? Do you get easily angered with the driver who cut you off at the exit?

Yeah, yeah, I know, easier said than done. But at least we have a starting point. And if we forget a few, go back and try again. Recheck yourself once in a while. You may be surprised with the results.