Broken Hearts and Mouths

Today in my quiet time, I was reading about love in 1 Corinthians. You know the passage. You can probably rattle if off so easily and perhaps flippantly. If not, I'll refresh your memory....

"Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out."

I also found a video of a sermon from our church back in Cedar Falls, and I listened to a little bit of the message. You can find it here. It was soooo good!!!

OK, so I know that we usually read over this passage so quickly. If you are anything like me, you might even think this is one of those passages that is easier said (or read in this case) than done. Seriously. If we were all patient and kind, never jealous, boastful, proud, or rude what a wonderful world this would be. You don't have to get through too much of your day to either experience someone else who is the opposite of these or even more likely, you manifest these terrible adjectives.

I guess as I was reading today, I was thinking about how abstract these words are. How they just seem to be a label. In my head, I transfered them into actions. Like this:

• patient = waiting in the checkout line at WalMart, waiting for your students to stand in line quietly so that you can go to activity, picking up your kid's books or cars for the millionth time this week, etc....with a positive attitude.

• kindess = letting someone in during traffic even though it sets you back a little bit, giving someone else the bigger share of the candy bar, smiling at people as you walk through the parking lot.......all with a positive attitude.

ETC. ETC. ETC. It really helped me to actually put each adjective into a particular situation. Kindness and patience seem so abstract, so I needed to make them more concrete in my mind.

I continued this throughout the rest of the passage and the sermon I listened to helped me break it down to 2 things that we need to get in check....our mouths and our hearts. The Bible says that our mouths are tougher to tame than many animals and that it is full of deadly poison (James 3). So, if we work at taming the tongue, we can work at being patient, kind, and not rude. Then, if we work on our hearts, it will be so much easier to not boast or demand our own way. Basically, if we turn our hearts to the Lord, then we will realize it's not all about us......that will totally shift my attitude and help me realize when I am being selfish throughout the day.

So, today I am praying for God to fix my mouth and heart. Then, I can begin to love the way He has called me to.

PS-This post definitely leaves something to be desired in the aesthetic beauty category. It will not let me load this post without something looking oddly wrong--the font size, color, or just general look. I know I am a newbie blogger, but it feels like I am losing control right now with my technological capabilities. But, I'm still going to be kind and patient. Like I said, I'm working on my heart and mouth as we speak...