LOVE Challenge

Matthew 22:36-39
"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?"

Jesus replied, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself"

Wow, what a reminder. LOVE. That little four letter word is full of power. Tis the season to love, right? The most imporant thing we could do in the life on earth is to Love God with everything we are. The challenge we are all faced with is giving every ounce of our devotion to God, something that I'm not sure any of us do well enough. How many times have a said to Josh, "I love you with all my heart" --- ok wait a second, if I'm loving Josh with all my heart, then what's left for God? I think it's something we all need to evaluate.

But what I can't believe, is the second MOST IMPORTANT thing we need to do as Christians on this earth....LOVE people. I think we can all agree, it's super easy to love certain people in our lives. For me, Josh is super easy to love, so is Ty, my parents, brothers, friends, etc. but what about everyone else? Those people that are just so unloveable?

Over the last couple weeks God has really laid on my heart a desire to revaluate how I love. One reason being, this crazy little thing called love, is just too huge to God to not take a good look at in my own life. And another reason being, I don't love like I should. So anyone out there who's reading this and relating to every word I'm saying, take this challenge with me! Let's seek out what God has to say about LOVE and start doing it in our own lives.

What I've felt God nudging me to do is to take a look at how God defines love, and not just read them, but to dive into the definition and make it a reality in my own life.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails..."

I'm going to pick apart these verses and take a look at my own life and take another look at how I'm loving the following:
1. God
2. Those people I say I "love"
3. My enemies

I'm going to take these verses part by part and let each portion marinate in my mind for a week, so that it's not just in one ear and out the other. But something I think about for a whole week, forcing myself to Love how Christ commands I love. Again, I'd love for others to take this journey with me and share your weekly struggles and successes, so we can encourage one another! Anyone on board?