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