What does love look like?

"Sometimes truly loving a person is not telling them everything that is wrong with them, but it's telling them everything that is right with Jesus." - Pastor Rob Phillips

This is an idea that I am still trying to completely rap my mind around.  What would my life look like if I actually reacted in this way to other people?  I realized that this is far from my first reaction when I am challenged with loving someone when it is not easy to love that person.  I have made it a personal goal to react in love to other people. 

What does that look like?  I'm no expert, but I am striving to do a few things to show love to other people rather than reacting in a unloving and degrading manner when challenges come about.  It is no easy task, and I catch myself quite frequently reacting in a way that is in fact unloving and that is when I have to stop, breathe and bite my tongue before I say something that I will later regret.  I have made a point this semester to be a person that gives more than I take, and to love those that I come in contact with every day rather than being judgmental.  God has put these people in my life right now, and they are the people that I need to be continuously ministering to and pouring into. 

I think that so many times we want to nit pick and tell everyone all of the little things that bother us about them and we don't take the time to slow down and appreciate them and truly love them.  I am guilty of this myself.  The quote above was an incredible reminder to me about what love should really look like.  Sometimes we thing, "Oh, I can love this person by helping them fix ..." when really that is just telling them the things that are wrong with them, and that is not showing love.

We need to look at people for who they are, how God made them, and love them just the way they are.  God doesn't put limitations or conditions on His love for us, so why should we but them on our love for other people.  The Bible says to build each other up, and it is not our place to judge one another, so we need to pour into other people with the love of Jesus, unconditionally, with encouragement.  This includes being patient with people, even when it's not an easy thing to do.  That is one area I am striving to become better at.  I want love to be the way that I react to other people, the way that I live out my life, and what people can expect from me no matter what the situation is.

1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 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 have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,^[a] but have not love, I gain nothing. -1 Corinthians 13:1-3 ESV

Another Freshman...

So I'm 636 miles away from home, in the middle of several corn fields, in a place with no hills (it's just all flat), and I have no idea what I am doing here.  That is the very thing that came out of my mouth one night while I was praying last semester.  I didn't know quite what God was doing with my life.  I wasn't sure why He brought me to Ohio.  Most importantly, I couldn't figure out what I was going to do here for the next four years.

After a long semester of trying to figure out what this whole thing called college was all about, I have finally gotten a handle on what it is going to be.  I realized that it was going to be normal to start class in prayer (which had been a foreign concept to me), that the friendships that I make here are going to be some of the most important relationships that I build in my life, and the experience that I have here is going to be life-changing and unlike anything else.

Some things I have learned thus far...

1. There is a thing called sleep (this may be something you are familiar with) but for me it happens when it happens.  I have learned that saying "I am going to bed early tonight" means that I am really going to be up until at least 12:30 laughing with some other girls until our stomachs hurt.  We will be talking into the wee hours of the night, and then realize that we have an 8 a.m. class the next day.  But, I wouldn't change that joy and laughter for anything.
2. Secondly, I have learned that a smile can be one of the most encouraging things in the world.  I can't walk down the hall without seeing a joyous smile of one of the girls that I live with.  Regardless of how my day has gone or what is going on, I can count on my friends to completely change that mood as soon as I get "home".
3. Trips to Walmart in the middle of the week can at times be the most exciting thing that you do all week.  They can result in hide n' seek, where the loser gets an outfit picked out for them.  
4. No amount of laughter is too much laughter.  We tend to just laugh even harder together than we do apart because the sound of each unique laugh makes the rest of us laugh even more.  The simple sound of laughter warms my heart and makes me smile.

So let's go back to where I started, not knowing what I was doing, why I was here, and what God's plans were.  For a while I was sitting back and waiting to see what God was doing and was unsure of what it meant to simply be still and know that God is in control and that He will take care of me.  I didn't know what it looked like to "give it all to God" like I had been told so many times before.  Things have changed.  I see that there is purpose to being here, to being with these people and to watching God work.

The people that I am surrounded by here at Cedarville have been a huge blessing to me.  They have taught me so many things about myself, and life in general.  I've accepted the ideas that it's okay to not have it all together all the time, and putting on a mask is one of the worst things we can do sometimes.  I have learned to be open with people, to confront people, to encourage people, and to let them be an encouragement to me.  Most importantly, I have gained a greater understanding of the power of prayer.

I'm going to be honest.  At first I was scared to death to be in a Christian school surrounded by people that believed the same things that I do.  I didn't know what it was going to be like to be constantly surrounded by the body of believers.  I thought I didn't know half as much as most of them probably did.  But, the truth is, it is one of the best decisions I have made in my life.  It has allowed me to grow openly and to grow with other people and that is truly a valuable experience.