Talking with a friend the other day I was reminded of a definition that I heard of Agape' Love.
Agape' love is a love centered in the character of the one loving and not the lovableness of the one loved. God loves because he is love, not because we are so adorable. Because it is in God's nature and character to love, he loves.
Human love is usually, as Josh McDowell used to say, a "love if", or a "love because". People love us "if" we perform in a certain way, or "because" we have a quality the person likes. That love is usually centered on Beauty, Brains, or Bucks. It is a selfish love that wants to get something rather than give.
We can ask God to help us to be people who love period, and not love just to get something! And we can know that God loves us with unconditional love.
Showing posts with label Practical Love. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Practical Love. Show all posts
Friday, June 26, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Affirming those we Love
The girls that we houseparent come to our home for a week at a time. We do that for 3 households to give the houseparents in those homes a break. This means we are with the girls a week each month.
At the end of our week together Bev and I each share something positive we have seen in each girl's lives that week. It may be kind act, or a character quality, or something enjoyable we learned about them.
When we first started doing this, the girls would look down, would be embarassed, and did not know how to take a compliment. It was fun to see them enjoy these words of encouragement and look forward to them.
I think this can be powerful in any home.
A simple concept, we learned (can't remember from where) when our girls were small was that each child is born with a cookie around their neck that says "I am important". Through their day when children cut them down, or laugh at them a little of the cookie crumbles off. When people affirm them, listen to them, care about them parts of the cookie are replaced.
That simple picture helped Bev and I to make positive affirmation an active part of raising our children.
At the end of our week together Bev and I each share something positive we have seen in each girl's lives that week. It may be kind act, or a character quality, or something enjoyable we learned about them.
When we first started doing this, the girls would look down, would be embarassed, and did not know how to take a compliment. It was fun to see them enjoy these words of encouragement and look forward to them.
I think this can be powerful in any home.
A simple concept, we learned (can't remember from where) when our girls were small was that each child is born with a cookie around their neck that says "I am important". Through their day when children cut them down, or laugh at them a little of the cookie crumbles off. When people affirm them, listen to them, care about them parts of the cookie are replaced.
That simple picture helped Bev and I to make positive affirmation an active part of raising our children.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Source of Love
Are you having trouble loving someone? You cannot work up love on our own. The source of love is God. If God lives in us we can claim his love, working through us, for the people in our lives. Because God is love, we can love.
1 John 4:7-12
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 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. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. NIV
After claiming love for that person, from God. Do an act of love and kindness for them. It does not matter how they respond. It does not matter how you feel emotionally. You have loved them with God's love. That pleases God.
1 John 4:7-12
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 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. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. NIV
After claiming love for that person, from God. Do an act of love and kindness for them. It does not matter how they respond. It does not matter how you feel emotionally. You have loved them with God's love. That pleases God.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Love of God is the Foundation of Love for Others
I was reading Taste and See by John Piper. One statement he made on p.44 really struck me.
"The love of God is not God's making much of us, but God's saving us from self-centered sin so that we may enjoy making much of him forever. And our love to others is not our making much of them, but our helping them to find eternal satisfaction in making much of God."
I was reminded about a decision both Bev and I made before we met. We decided that we did not have to get married, but would be satisfied with the fact that we were loved by God and were able to love him.
That decision helped us both not to make an idol of each other when we met. Instead of worshiping each other, we are able to worship God together in an amazing journey he has taken us through.
At a practical level this involves being inclusive of others. Showing them hospitality. Instead of living selfish lives centered on each other, we can reach out to others and love them together.
God is our first love, and our love for each other flows out of that love. God inside of each of us is able to love far more effectively than our little human love can love each other.
My daughter Comfort likes an illustration using a pyramid. The husband is on the left and the wife on the right of a pyramid. God is at the top of the pyramid. The closer the husband and wife get to God(moving up their side of the pyramid toward God), the closer they are to each other.
Loving God helps us be unselfish in relationships, therefore enriching our love for one another.
"The love of God is not God's making much of us, but God's saving us from self-centered sin so that we may enjoy making much of him forever. And our love to others is not our making much of them, but our helping them to find eternal satisfaction in making much of God."
I was reminded about a decision both Bev and I made before we met. We decided that we did not have to get married, but would be satisfied with the fact that we were loved by God and were able to love him.
That decision helped us both not to make an idol of each other when we met. Instead of worshiping each other, we are able to worship God together in an amazing journey he has taken us through.
At a practical level this involves being inclusive of others. Showing them hospitality. Instead of living selfish lives centered on each other, we can reach out to others and love them together.
God is our first love, and our love for each other flows out of that love. God inside of each of us is able to love far more effectively than our little human love can love each other.
My daughter Comfort likes an illustration using a pyramid. The husband is on the left and the wife on the right of a pyramid. God is at the top of the pyramid. The closer the husband and wife get to God(moving up their side of the pyramid toward God), the closer they are to each other.
Loving God helps us be unselfish in relationships, therefore enriching our love for one another.
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