Loving Because

Are we control freaks? Oh, I know we all are at some things. We like things a certain way, we want the laundry folded & put away just so, the sink free of dishes, & other things that we consider important, but do we want to control people? Surely we don't. Can it be said of us that we allow other people to be themselves? Do we get upset because someone didn't do something or behave the way we thought they should? I'm not talking about destructive, blatantly hurtful, or sinful behavior but behavior that really has no bearing directly but behavior that we just don't like for whatever reason.

Do we allow others to be themselves? Do we allow others the opportunity to behave without judging their behavior? Do we accept their behavior as just that and nothing more? We cannot control others or their behaviors. We cannot make people do things we want them or don't want them to do. It's ok to confront someone about their behavior as long as it is done in love and concern and not an attempt to make them see things your way or try to make them do what we want them to do.

One of the most freeing things is to stop expecting people to behave how we want them to behave, our way, the way they "should"(our controlling). Then we will not be continually disappointed, hurt, jealous, angry or offended. Allow others the opportunity to take care of themselves, & in return, we should take care of ourselves. That's a hard enough job...being concerned about ourselves & our physical, emotional, spiritual well-being that we don't have time to worry about the expectations we have in our mind that someone else should meet to make us happy or complete.

Do we want to control or do we love? It's very easy for us to sit in our comfy chair and think about what others should do, when perhaps we have no clue what is going on in their life or perhaps how God is trying to work in their lives. We want to justify our behaviors because theirs isn't up to par. Heaven help us. God have mercy on us as we sit not knowing what all is going on; not having the all-seeing Eye of the Father. Lord, convict us of our self-absorbed, narcissistic behaviors. Convict us if we feel that somehow we deserve special treatment? Help us, God & show us how to love how You love.

Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you have loved me
Break my heart for what breaks yours
Everything I am for your kingdom's cause
As I walk from earth into eternity
~hosanna by hillsong

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love,
I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps,
but I don't love, I'm nothing.
If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr,
but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere.
So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do,
I'm bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
Love never dies.

1 Corinthians 13 (The Message)