Love
If I speak in the tongues of mortals
and angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and
all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not
have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I
hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind; love is
not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way;
it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but
rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all
things, endures all things.
Love never ends. But as for
prophesies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for
knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy
only in part; but when the completed comes, the partial will come to an end.
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I though like a child, I reasoned
like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we will see face to
face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have
been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the
greatest of these is love.
Love grows as we grow older. That is
what marriage vows are all about – for better or worse, and in sickness and in
health. Think about couples you have known who have given up on their
marriages, who are unwilling to endure the better or
worse, sickness and health part of their vows. Feel sad for them. They will
miss the kind of love that you may enjoy, and sometimes take for granted. Know
that deep faith in God, lifelong commitment, loyalty, and self-denying love are
the key themes of successful marriages. True love never gives up. Enjoy the
wisdom that comes late in life. Enjoy it until the day you die and go to
heaven.
Don’t put off
until tomorrow the loving words you can say today.
Our Daily
Bread –