Love

Love is what has been on my mind since doing a S.O.A.P. reading the other day.

I had read 1 John 3:11-3:24, and felt the passage had a strong message that love is essential. It gave practical points on how to love, and talked about how the world would hate us and it was essential for us to love. Although this was all very good, I felt like I was missing something. Like there was something in the passage that would have a huge impact on me, I just couldn't see it yet. I explored what it is for me to love, and then I explored what it is that gets in the way of me loving, and that's when it came to me...superficial judgment.

On thinking further I determined love and superficial judgment cannot exist in the same space. One way I think of love is: accepting who someone is and who someone isn't, and giving up having to change them. When I get to that point with someone, I can be in that persons presence without anything getting in the way of loving them, even in a sacrificial way. No matter who they are, or what they have done.

That realisation had an immediate impact on my life, and the relationships with several people I know were altered because no longer did my judgment of them stand in the way of loving them.