Today I’m honored to be a guest at Carol Peterson’s blog, I hope you’ll follow the link here to Carol’s blog to my new series, The 10 + 1 Building Blocks Of Relationships. Today’s post is an introduction to the series that will be running monthly over the next year.
Carol Peterson is a writer with a heart for encouragement, sharing parables of faith on her blog From Carol’s Quill and making learning fun in Fun with Finance and other teacher resource books.
I love Forrest yes I do. Yep, unconditionally too. I’ve written about him before (just a couple of times). Now Forrest was not the sharpest tool in the shed, but he knew a few things… most importantly, Forrest knew unconditional love.
God’s perfect example of unconditional love was Jesus… he came for us and lived the perfect life, dying for our sins… we can’t earn it and don’t deserve it but got it anyway. God gave us Jesus… and then they gave us Gump.
Unconditional love… loving without any agenda. That means I’m going to put you first.
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails…
… And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
from 1 Corinthians Chapter 13.
Love… Yep, Just Love…
I’m writing today as a contributor to the Christian Writers Blog Chain. Our theme for this month is “Joy” Christianwriters.com is an excellent place to network if you’re a Christian writer or author.
Primo (just sayin')
Joy…
uncontrollable…
unannounced…
attributable only to purity…
a sign of inner peace.
It feels good.
My example?
I’ve woken up from a dream laughing… it’s happened more than once and again recently… a twitchy movement ended with me stirring awake… and to my amazement, giggles followed…
Holy Week 2012 was amazing. It left me feeling really warm inside. “Best Ever” sounds redundant when I say it every holiday. My family is growing… there is love… yep, just love…
I think of the impact from Holy Week and the event that we celebrate as Easter… the significance and gift of the resurrection… some of the afterglow that lives within us has an impact every day, and every single week of the year. To me, it’s coming to the table every day… bringing something good… working the right angle… getting really sticky about it.
The disciples went out after Jesus rose from the dead and shared the good news. They were excited. This was based on a true event in history. There were witnesses. The word spread like wildfire and still does 2,000 years later. This story of a wandering carpenter who healed people with his bare hands… who spoke the truth in love… the one who lived the perfect life… and who died a horrid death nailed to a cross… he died for us… for all of us.
Shouldn’t we be living for him?
What’s Next?
The Other 51…
"Love your neighbor as yourself" ... the most important expression of Unity... and one the whole world can see!
Near the very end of Jesus’ life here on earth He said a prayer… one that provides valuable insight on the theme of Peace, Love and Unity… this prayer for future believers (that would be us) immediately follows a prayer for himself, and for his disciples…
“My prayer is not for them alone, I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” John 17:20-23.
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