It is in loving that we are most like Him.
"The whole Law can be summoned up in this one command: 'Love others as you love yourself.' " (Galatians 5: 14)
Love cannot be learned in isolation. To develop the skill of loving, you have to be around people -- irritating, imperfect, frustrating people.
Relationships must have priority in your life above everything else. Why?
1) Life without love is really worthless.
- Often we act as if relationships are something to be squeezed into our schedule. But God says relationships are what life is all about.
- Four of the Ten Commandments deal with our relationship to God while the other six deal with our relationships with people.
- Paul said, "No matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love." ( 1 Corinthians 13:3)
- Relationships, not achievements or the acquisition of things, are what matters most in life.
- Busyness is a great enemy of relationships. (Is Coral slowly eroding our friendship? We see each other every day but we just don't have the time for a heart-to-heart chat?)
2) Love will last forever.
Love leaves a legacy. How you treated other people is the most enduring impact you can leave on earth. (A surge of warmth rose in my heart when I saw Zhan Ying and Agnes Lim that night outside Tampines One, running towards me from a far distance, shouting, "Miss Lee." Then, we met each other again at Tampines bus interchange and had quite a long chat.)
3) We will be evaluated on our love.
One of the ways God measures spiritual maturity is by the quality of your relationships.
God will review how we treated other people, particularly those in need.
The Best Expression of Love is Time
- Time is your most precious gift because you only have a set amount of it. You can make more money, but you can't make more time. When you give someone your time, you are giving them a portion of your life that you'll never get back. That is why the greatest gift you can give someone is your time.
- The most desired gift of love is focused attention.
- Whenever you give your time, you are making a sacrifice, and sacrifice is the essence of love.
- Love means giving up - yielding my preferences, comfort, goals, security, money, energy, or time for the benefit of someone else. (And I think very often, love also means giving up your dignity or so-called 'face'.)
(My top three priorities these two years have been school work, church work and spending time with my mum. I'm already struggling to juggle my time between these three priorities. When school term starts, I will have to focus on school work followed by spending time with my mum. When holiday starts, I will switch my focus to catechism ministry work followed by spending time with my mum. My life is very much driven by work. Reading, blogging and praying in the adoration room are the only times I leave for myself. I have no complaints, especially about my heavy responsibility in the catechism ministry.
My only regret is I can't afford to spend more time with my best friend, Angeline. She's the only one who seems to have telepathy with me. She can sense that I'm upset or behaving rather awkwardly even when we don't get to talk face-to-face. I truly thank God for giving me such a close and reliable buddy but I often feel guilty for not being able to keep her company for as often as I would wish to. Many times, when she asked me out, I had to reject her for various reasons. This year, when she most needed a listening ear, I wasn't by her side as well. In fact, our communication with each other this year is more on sms rather than talking face to face.)
The Best Time to Love is Now
- Because you don't know how long you will have the opportunity.
- Circumstances change. You have no guarantee of tomorrow.
- If you want to express love, you had better do it now.
- taken from Rick Warren's The Purpose-Driven Life.
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