Fruitfilled Friday: #1 Love...

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
(1 John 4:7-11) NIV

The next 9 Fri. blogs focus will be on the 9 Fruits of the Spirit. (Galatians 5:22-23)
Def: LOVE:noun
a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent,child or friend
-affectionate concern for the well-being of others (neighbors)
the benevolent affection of God for His creatures or the reverent affection due from them to
God.

As I thought about how best to convey Love as a Fruit of the Spirit... I began thinking; acronym! I find this comes fairly natural to me... and easy to remember. So, I will be breaking down the word Love by each letter.
L- Love Lord; The Bible clearly tells us to Love Him 1st and foremost... And "you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength." This is the first commandment. (Mark 12:30)
For ME this includes prayer, personal devotions... for myself this goes along with my blogging... no bible reading, scripture hunting and use of other biblical based books... no blog! Oh! how HE teaches and convicts me as I write... all so I can change and LOVE! Regular church and Bible study attendance is also a Must for me!
O- Open & OH! Boy ... Others! Am I the only one that finds this SO hard to do!? Hope not.

Def: LOVE: verb- to have a strong liking for; take great pleasure in
- to need or require; benefit greatly from.
*example- Plants love sunlight -*
Going back to our Bible verse ... And the second, like it is this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." "There is no other commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:31)
This is a clear command from God, we are to Love Others, only 2nd to HIM!
As I discovered in my def. if we Love someone we will like them-STRONGLY, and take GREAT pleasure in them! I'm sure we all daily, have moments of STRONG DIS-like; or GREAT DIS-pleasure;(DIS-Pleasing) with some OTHER! Spouse, child, housemate... other etc.
So how do we change this nature of ours? Personally I find it a MUST!... to Pray- for my attitude to change and pray, for the Other person! Yes, it's still hard, remember it is God's job to change Others NOT ours. Also ask HIM if it may be Your Heart or attitude that needs changing!?
2nd part of def. NEED or REQUIRE ... WoW!! We are suppose to need and require LOVE! The Lord built this into us, were the ones that mess it up so often! Ex. I've seen or heard about... Mates decide they no longer Need or Require one another... ends in divorce. Ironically they end up needing and requiring another! A parent decides they don't need,require their child... worst scenerio... ends in murder of child! But many other cases inbetween... hence our foster parenting years. Reasons children end up in foster care vary.... but our experience points to, the parent choosing their needs over their child's needs of Love etc. It may be choosing a lover, drugs, gambling etc. over mate or children. For some it may be choosing things over our families well-being. Do Others benefit greatly from you... as the last part of our def. states?!
Ex. as stated with def. Plants love sunlight ... My analogy... We are to be the plants that Others are attracted to, because of HIS SONlight, that shines in and thru US! The last part of "O"- Open... simply put we are to have Open Hearts, Open Minds... if we are to Love HIM & Others!
V- Value: def- relative worth, merit, or importance, significance...
Do the "Others" in your life feel the "Worth" of your Love? They merit, feeling Important and Significant to you! LOVE does that! We are all Worth Love; (Romans 5:8) says... But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us... What Worth!!
E- Enjoy & Embrace
Enjoy spending time with God, your mate, your children... how I struggle with this, the selfish part of me says "I have other things to do with MY Time! Oh, but is it OUR Time?! It's not if we give it to HIM! He will "Bless your time and give you enough for what you need for the day. Make TIME for HIM; HE is our Faithful Time Keeper and Friend.
Embrace- God, your mate, your children and Others.
This means embracing all... faults included, as hard as it may be. The IMpossible, becomes POSSIBLE if we willingly, Embrace God and HIS Love.
N-HIS-LOVE, JKEST
Vicki
The link below will connect you to todays: Fruitfilled Friday song... Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUHl3dhQjhk

*Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me." John 14:6*