love, continued.

I now know even better why I was uninspired before this series started. I was supposed to be reminded of something. of love, really.

it sort of bothers me when someone tells me how I should live my life. there is advice, and knowledge and wisdom, and I am always open to that. but that is different than someone telling me how they think things should go when they aren't even involved in the situation directly.

so I've been thinking lately.. that I really hope I don't do that, ha. I told Chad the other day that 'I don't want to want to be right all of the time'. <-- read it again slowly, it makes sense. I had to say it a couple times too. (:

but who am I to say how someone's life should go? unless God clearly speaks, shows me something, then I don't have a say. I am just supposed to love.

I recently read the book Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller (really spoke to me, by the way. good read.), and there was a chapter on how to really love other people. he talks about someone he went to church with that he had a hard time being around because he just really didn't like him. everything this guy did and everything he talked about was annoying and rude. but then God spoke to him and he realized the issue wasn't the friend, it was himself. after he decided to let go of judging the friend, he realized he was really funny and smart and couldn't believe he hadn't noticed it before. once his view of his friend changed, they both started to change for the better.

I don't know if any of that made sense but this is the part that is sticking with me..

'I could feel God's love for him. I loved the fact that it wasn't my responsibility to change somebody, that it was God's, that my part was just to communicate love and approval.
When I am talking to somebody there are always two conversations going on. The first is on the surface; it is about politics or music or whatever it is our mouths are saying. The other is beneath the surface, on a level of the heart, and my heart is either communicating that I like the person I am talking to or I don't. God wants both conversations to be true. That is, we are supposed to speak truth in love. If both conversations are not true, God is not involved in the exchange, we are on our own, and on our own, we will lead people astray. The Bible says that if you talk to somebody with your mouth and your heart does not love them, that you are like a person standing there smashing two cymbals together. You are only annoying everybody around you. I think that is very beautiful and true.
..Now when I go to meet somebody, I pray that God will help me feel His love for them. I ask God to make it so both conversations, the one from the mouth and the one from the heart, are true.'

he also said, 'by being true I am allowing people to get to know the real me, and it feels better to have people love the real me than the me I invented.'

my job is to love.

like this..

dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. 1 john 3:18

linking:

| out loud in my head | the rabbit hole chronicles | a joyful journal |

| by feet or heart | the ever-changing thought | broken rubies | apopiptolepis |

how are you feeling about love today?