AND THEN THERE'S LOVE

And though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels,
But have not loved, I am but a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysterious
And all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could move mountains
But have not loved, I am nothing.
And though I give away all of my possessions and I hand over my body so that I may boast,
But have not loved, it profits me nothing.

Love is patient.
Love is kind.
Love does not envy.
Love is not boastful, arrogant, or rude.
Love does not insist on it’s own way.
Love is not irritable.
Love is not resentful.
Love does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.
Love will never fail.

But as for prophecies, they will cease.
As for tongues, they will come to an end.
As for knowledge, it will vanish away.

For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part.
But when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.
When I was a child, I reasoned like a child.
When I became an adult, I put away childish ways.
For now we see in the mirror, dimly, but then face to face.
Now I know only in part, then I will know fully even as I have been fully known.
And now always abide by these three things…
Faith, Hope, and Love
But the greatest of these will always be Love.

I Corinthians: 13

This verse as always been very important because love is what connects us all together. It’s so important that we love one another, we respect one another, and we cherish one another because without this connection to each other we are nothing. Love comes to each of us in surprising and unexpected ways and sometimes we don’t see it clearly and we hesitate to embrace it. Throughout everything that I have experience in my own life I have always strived to embrace love in all it’s forms. I truly believe that it’s the one gift given to us by God to weather every storm that may approach us. There are moments in our lives when we somehow manage to take some very dark paths. These are the times when love is the one and only thing that we possess to light our own way.

I have not always followed the path of virtue but it’s a path that I proudly own and my hope is that others will learn from my own experiences. Each lesson that is taught truly does have a ripple effect that can spread throughout our society making it better than ever before. This is the best part of human nature and human compassion. I truly believe that we do not make mistakes in our lives but we rather experience lessons. Quite often we experience very hard lessons that can be brought upon ourselves but we should always claim them as our own. Each lesson makes us a better person, each lesson gives us the drive to become that better being, and each lesson gives us a deeper respect for the concept of love. It’s these lessons that bring us closer to ourselves and closer to love. So I urge everyone to embrace who they are and use your own experiences, both right and wrong, to become more than you ever expected and always remember…

Let love guide your way.