Be The Example!

This past weekend, I was invited to a little girl’s birthday party. This little girl is the daughter of a very good friend of mine, so I was invited to the family dinner party as an honourable “Aunty.” Of course …

An Unusual Date Night

Life can get hectic – we all know and have experienced that. But sometimes, your love life is what suffers most, especially when you’re having a hard time finding time to get the things you need to get done, done. It’s an awful cycle to get into. But what if you could turn “tasks” into dates? Here’s an example of what I mean:

I didn’t buy my used car that long ago (2 years?) but we know that it’s going to have some major work needed soon. It’s ten years old, and it’s been a wonderful car. But the price in work that it will need done far surpasses what the car is worth, so we’re starting to look at getting a new car.

I hate the idea of spending a ton of money, I really do. And especially because I know we can’t afford a new car right now, the thought of looking at vehicles does not appeal to me at all. However, my husband wants an idea ahead of time what I want so he can work towards getting me something I like. I guess it’s kind of a motivating goal for him to know what I want so he can work towards that thing.

Last night, he asked me if I would go looking at cars with him since it was Sunday and the dealerships close early. It would give us the privacy to walk the lot, look at the vehicles from the outside without being interrupted by a car salesman which I can get so intimidated by. I’d rather have my time to at least identify what type of vehicle I’m looking for before being pursued to purchase anything.

My husband’s been after me for awhile to do anything like this, and I’ve been avoiding it. But especially because vehicles have been his new love, I decided to go more for him than anything. But you know what? I couldn’t have made a better decision. First of all, he was excited I had said yes. Secondly, we went to Starbucks to get a drink to take around with us. Thirdly, it really was kind of like a date, getting to know what each other liked about vehicles, browsing around after hours, not having any outside pressures, and just spending time together. It was actually really nice.

So instead of thinking about the mundane tasks all of the time, maybe think of ways you can incorporate tasks with your spouse and make it more of a date. It can totally change something you hate (I really hated looking at vehicles the four times we’ve done it before). Spend your time together, and make the best of every situation that you can. You and your spouse promised to share your lives together, so share even the smallest of tasks. It can have a way of improving you life all around. 🙂

I Prayed for 10 Years, and God Answered

Sometimes in life, there are things we don’t know how to approach. There are people we want to say things to to, but for some reason can’t find the right words. Sometimes, they can be missed opportunities that are missed out of fear. Sometimes, they are missed because we keep waiting for something or someone else to bring up the topic so that we have an opportunity to put in our heartfelt words that we need to say. Some people unfortunately underestimate the amount of time that is available for some things to be said.

For years I have been trying to get enough courage or find the right moment to talk to my father about God; about my views on God and trying to find out exactly where he’s at. My father believes in God, absolutely. But after learning about how awesome it is to be a child of God, that you can openly talk to God as a friend and call him Father, Papa, or even Daddy if you’d like, it left me in a state of uneasiness seeing my dad only ever refer to Him as things like “The Man Upstairs”. I didn’t get a sense of owning God, of realizing that God loved Him. But how do I bring up such a sensitive topic with my own father? I know, I know. Some of you would say that I should love my father enough to bring it up regardless, but just pause for a moment. This is my father. I care about him more than the average person I would meet and talk about God with. I don’t want to mess it up. I don’t want him to ask questions I don’t know the answer to. If I want to talk about it, I want to do it right, and there were not enough rehearsals to ever make me feel prepared.

But God changed that this summer.

Now, I think part of the reason is I had to tell my family I had turned vegan. They were used to me being vegetarian before, so in reality, vegan wasn’t much more of a step. They took the news a lot better this time than they did originally when I turned vegetarian, so I’m assuming I had them “warmed-up” for the big change.

Because I had to tell my family I was vegan, Dad asked me why I made the switch this time. I loved this question! I had the opportunity to tell my dad about the health benefits of being vegan and how much better it is. I didn’t go into incredible details of the effects on animals because my dad wasn’t there yet. But what did surprise me was one of the responses he did give me, which was simply this: “I could probably live without meat. But I guess my thing is I don’t want to. I love my steak.”

Now I know, there are definitely some people in the vegan community who would start criticizing my dad right away. I have heard and seen all the criticisms that could be used against his statement. But just hold on a second, after all, I know my dad better than you.

His statement was honest. He didn’t lie about it, he didn’t make excuses, he told the truth. He even admitted (for the first time ever) that he could probably live without meat! How big of a reality is that! This, coming from a man who literally grew up on the vegetables his mother grew in the garden, and the meat his father hunted in the woods. Even to this day, the family gets together to share moose meat if someone wins their moose license. It’s a way for them to save money and stock up the food supplies for the winter. Remember, New Brunswick’s economy is not huge by any means. And, if you think of it that way, he didn’t even go off listing a whole bunch of meats he couldn’t live without, he said one – steak. Now, I don’t support the killing of animals, I really don’t. But if he could even stop eating all other meats and only have steak once in awhile, that still saves lives! There is room for progress! So anyways, you can feel my excitement and hopefully understand it over that reply.

So I don’t know if it was because he was already asking me why I eat the way I eat or what, but he then asked me a question I have been waiting YEARS to answer, and that was about my faith. Now he didn’t ask an open-ended question such as what I believe, but he kind of asked in a weird way how my beliefs were compared to Catholicism. Now I can’t claim that he was questioning Catholicism, but I can say that he NEVER would have asked me this before. In fact, when I was baptized Seventh-day Adventist, my grandparents (his parents) told me I was playing with religions and that you should stick to the one you were born into. They are very set in following traditions which is also what the Catholic church holds onto, so I always saw my father having the same mindset.

Regardless, he opened up.

I asked him to clarify a little, and he basically asked if my beliefs had Saints like the Catholic church does, or if we pray to Mary, or those kinds of things. Now, imagine my heart bursting wide open at this point. Again, he may not be questioning things about the Catholic church that I don’t believe in, but it almost sounds like he is! So I just say no, and explain that everything we believe comes straight out of the Bible, and that we did have a “prophet” within the last century who passed all the tests as provided by the Bible as to how to recognize a true prophet or not, and though we don’t worship her or praise her, we do use her inspired teachings/writings as a deeper way to understand some of the confusing things in the Bible. After all, the Bible was written by God-inspired people. So it does make sense that somebody could have been chosen to be inspired by God again, which is why they conducted the Bible’s prophet tests on her to make sure she was truly being led by God. And I continued to explain to him that of course the Bible comes first, that we always pray to God, and that we do also believe in the Trinity: God (Father), Jesus (Son), and the Holy Spirit. But I told him (to emphasize the point) that everything we (or at least I) try to believe has to be based in the Bible, as tricky as that can be sometimes.

I’m not sure how my dad took all of that. It definitely wasn’t everything I wanted to say, but it was enough for the situation we were in. I wish I could say my dad said we’d continue the conversation later, but he didn’t. Mind you, we were in a busy situation, but I’m holding onto the fact that I’m praying God used that moment to plant seeds in my dad’s heart and mind. I’m praying that my dad will realize the greater relationship he could have with God than I think he does. I want that so bad for my dad, but as many of us know, if you push things, the person will usually retract. So for now, I’m being thankful God gave me that opportunity after so many years and will continue to pray that maybe Dad will ask me about things again so I can dive a little more into the personal relationship side of things. I’m still in awe that God did this for me, even though it has taken 10 or so years. God does answer prayer, that’s a fact.

So to end on a little extra happy note, my step mother and I have never talked about religion. I don’t really know her religious background… it’s just not usually a subject that is brought up. But even when I was driving around with her doing errands, she brought it up. And our conversation focussed more on whether the school I taught at accepted students of all walks of life, or if they could only be of our religion. We talked about how students from all walks of life do come to my school, but we don’t bend our beliefs based on theirs because they are choosing to pay and come to our school for some reason. She was curious how I taught my Bible classes, and I told her that I do respect the feelings and beliefs of all of my students, but that I’m not going to tell them to be sheep. I don’t just want them to believe things because I tell them to, because at one point, we all question what we believe. I want them to know why they believe what they believe with evidence, straight out of the Bible in black and white. I also told her that if they end up asking me a question about something I don’t know, I don’t ignore it. I either search out the answer myself, or we study it together as a class.

For example, this year my students were not into studying the life of Christ, something they’ve more or less covered since attending church as infants, but they wanted to know about the end times, about the dragon of Revelation, about what to expect. So you know what I did? Tossed my plans, and we started studying Revelation together. It was the most rewarding decision I could have made. Yes, there is some scary stuff in that book, but my students came from that book knowing so much better what to expect, what is going on in our lives, and how God is fighting for them every step of the way, wanting to protect them from every evil that is here and will come. They knew that things might get difficult for them, but that they shouldn’t fear as long as they put God first because ultimately, God is victorious and he is holding them in His hands the whole time.

I mentioned this in another blog, but it still blows my mind that two of my students who do not attend a church and do not come from religious families wrote to me at the end of the study, one saying that he had listened more than he ever thought he would, taking notes more than he ever had before, and the other saying how he’s not baptized (with a sad face) but knowing that he can do anything through the power of Christ and knowing that he can have a personal relationship with God was such good news to him. I mean, how much more powerful does it get than that! The students had questions, and God provided me the opportunity to learn and study with them. What an awesome way to be used by God!

So anyways, I guess if I can sum this up I would say, don’t be impatient. God’s timing is so much better than ours could ever be. And don’t give up. I mean, 10 years was a long time to wait for my opportunity to talk with my dad, but it came from his curiosity and not me preaching at him – 10 years, and God answered my prayer. So know that God does answer prayers. It may not be in the time you want, it may not be quite the answer you want, but God is always listening, and He will answer you.

Canada Vs. States: Why the Difference in Products?

As many of you know, my husband is from the states, and I’m from Canada. We are both currently living in Canada, and have been for several years. One of the biggest things my husband has noticed, besides how expensive many things are compared to the states, is how little selection we have compared to them! Why is that?

For those of you who are wondering what I’m talking about, take Oreos for example. It’s a simple example, but a good example. At my grocery store right now, we have the regular Oreos, Light Oreos (less fat), White Oreos, and Double-Stuff Oreos. At certain times, we had the privilege of having Birthday Cake Oreos and once we found S’mores Oreos, but they were both short-lived and not to be seen again.

I’ve seen videos of people in the grocery stores in the states, and the amount of flavours of Oreos available are immense! Why can’t we have that selection here in Canada?

Interesting tidbit: Oreos are vegan! Only eat as a treat as they are definitely not the most healthy option!

Tastebud Change: Part II

So as I said in my previous tastebud post, when you drop all dairy and most processed things, your tastebuds change. The example I used in my other post was the coconut rice that I had never been able to taste the coconut in before. Now it hits me like a coconut bomb. I love it.

Well, the other night, I had a moment of weakness. My husband and I went to a restaurant we normally don’t go to. And we ordered our favourite dish from there, which is cactus cut potatoes. There is no dairy on the actual potatoes, but there is in the dip that I used to love that comes with them.

I avoided it at first, but we had waited way too long to eat, and I had a moment of weakness. I dipped a potato in. Sometimes it sucks to be honest, but I do want to be transparent here. But here’s the funny part. It tasted awful. It tasted nothing like what I remembered. And it was’t just the batch. My husband said it was the same as always. I never thought the day would come where I didn’t like dairy… Oh my!

It’s amazing what your body can and will do. I won’t be craving that dip again anytime soon.

Day 12 – An Unplanned Write-Off

This morning I woke up so dehydrated! So right away, knowing I caused damage last night, I drank some water.

But problems started right at breakfast. I actually tried to sit down and eat this red papaya I had. I noticed it smelled a little funny when I cut it open, but went on to eat it anyways. The very first bite, I spit out within two seconds. I don’t know what happened to this papaya, so of course I went looking for something else. I didn’t really feel like eating after the awfulness of last night, but of course, I want that stuff out of my house, then rationalized that I couldn’t waste all that money, so I finished last night’s leftovers. Awful, terrible, don’t even want to talk about it. The biggest key to success is to not even bring it in the house. I’ve gotta learn!

At the gym, I went for a gruelling 35 minute stationary bike ride. I kept raising the difficulty every two minutes and it took so much work. I was so happy when I was finally finished the last 10 minutes. I was beginning to think I should lower the level, but I managed to stick it out! I was so thirsty and drank a ton of water when I was done. But I was happy.

I finished my workout with some lunge stretches, walking high kicks, and my chiropractor’s exercises. It felt good to get things done in the morning for sure.

I don’t even want to speak about my lunch, but to be accountable, I must. Remember those brownies from last night? Well, let’s just say they got finished, topped with some vegan coconut milk yogurt. I should have just eaten the yogurt, but I can officially say all the junk is out of my house again. I just feel awful and need to get to the point of throwing stuff out rather than risking my health, and not ordering it in the first place. It’s back on the proper mental train.

Or… let’s just add fuel to the fire. My husband and I eventually got ready and headed into town. We’re due for our weekly groceries, and he had no food to really eat left. So we stopped to get him food. Instead of not getting anything like I should have, I did make a vegan decision, but a bad decision as far as eating when I wasn’t hungry. I had a green onion cake, and I would have been just fine if I hadn’t had it. Ugh… The moral of all of this is just stop. Just don’t indulge in things you KNOW are going to make you feel awful. It starts a huge train wreck that you have to try and reset yourself from. Learn from my terrible, bloating, sick-feeling, stomach-turning mistakes. I have not done my job in taking care of my body.

So, I’d like to say the rest of the day finally went better. To some minor extent, it did. But honestly, I snacked on Veggie Chips, organic limeade, and that’s about it. I was going to make baked bananas, but found out I had forgotten I was out of tin foil.

Today was a bad day, and a prime example of why the avoidance of eating junk is so important. Because I ate so badly all day, I had huge cravings for candy tonight. That’s a sure sign that I did not eat enough fruit today (or any) and it’s just a wreck. I’m thinking of doing a completely raw couple of days to help flush out my system. Let’s see if I have the mental power to do it!

My New Experiment: Fruit

I think it’s time for a little background:

I grew up a hunter’s daughter. My father grew up a lumberjack’s son. He learned quickly in life that there was not a ton of money, and so my grandmother grew a vegetable garden, and whatever my grandfather was able to hunt was the meat they served (rabbits, deer, moose, partridge, etc…).

Thus, I grew up a heavy meat eater. In fact, stews or beans with biscuits, and the typical “meat and potatoes” were quite frequently a supper meal. Of course with the younger generations and slightly more money, pizzas and junk foods made their way in the diet as well. But it would not be uncommon for me as a child to sit down and eat a pound of bacon myself. That’s just the way it was.

I remember when I met my first vegetarians. They were like celebrities to me because the only people I ever knew of that would even think of not eating meat were celebrities. Nobody in the “real world” would ever think to live without eating meat. It must surely be a way to die!

However, seeing these people live, and healthily, gave me a spark that continued to grow. One morning, in my teenage years, I simply woke up, and told my mother never to make meat for me again.

Did I exactly know what I was getting into? Absolutely not. In fact, eating some vegetarian junk food without learning the proper way to eat healthily vegetarian landed me with intensive stomach pains and a visit to the hospital where the doctor informed me of some key staples I should be eating to be healthy. Oops. Learned that lesson the hard way.

And so it began. A somewhat healthier 10-11 years of being a vegetarian. Cold turkey. No going back.

It wasn’t until I met my husband, and found out he had grown up vegetarian that I went back to eating meat. Sounds weird, I know. But he met my family at my university graduation weekend, and my stepfather is notoriously known for his bbqing skills. My brother convinced him to try a “real” burger, and he was hooked. Of course, eventually it got to me, and I began eating meat again.

Of course, since I had been studying the Bible more and learning about healthier ways of eating, I still did not eat pork or animals considered “unclean”. I stuck with the basics of chicken, turkey, beef, and some fish. I am an Atlantic girl, and fish (specifically Atlantic Salmon) has always been a favourite.

Now recently, I’ve been reading and studying more into health. I’ve been looking at vegan diets, raw vegan diets, the details of what is going on with the meat that is served to us these days, the packaging, the handling, the processing, all of these things that are completely vital for us to know truly what we are putting in our bodies. And I’ve come to a conclusion: I need to get rid of the meat and animal products.

I could go on forever and ever about the toxins, poisons, and everything that is being put into animal products. I could tell you all about the fact that the majority of the meat we buy in stores has already gone bad and we don’t even know it. I could go on and on about how safety inspections are unrealistic, and how really, at the end of it all, we can only do the best we can with what we’re given. A hot topic, especially for someone who works out is of course how you get in enough protein.

But I’ve decided, the only true way to convince people is not a lecture, but to simply be a living example. And that is what I’m going to do.

Now, my husband is not quite on board with me on this, and I have promised to never ask him to change. If my life leads a perfect example, I figure that should be proof in and of itself. But little by little, he seems to be a little more supportive, though maintaining zero interest in it for himself, which is totally fine.

My plan is to still workout, to still continue researching how to eat properly, and to still continue on with everything else the same, except for how I eat. One difference. I’m getting the junk out of my system!

If you’re interested in this topic and wanting to know more yourself, the following are some of the links that I refer to frequently:

1. http://thebananagirl.com (she has other links from this site as well)

2. http://veganbodybuilding.com (some athletes even provide examples of their daily meals in their profiles)

3. http://www.thefrankmedrano.com (a man who chose to become vegan)

There are many more, but those are just a few to get started. I will keep you posted on how this goes!

#onajourneybacktoEden

Week 10 Day 1

After last night’s little truck mishap, it was nice just to sleep until I felt like getting up. I felt pretty good, was doing some laundry, and cleaning of the house, but unfortunately was not able to do a whole lot because I had to finish grading/report cards. So I sat upstairs for several hours, finishing the remainder of work. It felt SO GOOD to get it all done.

After I finished, we quickly got ready and went out for groceries. We then came home, ate, and were getting ready to go to the gym. Right before we left, I went downstairs to change the load of laundry only to find out my basement flooded… again! This is the second time in two months since we’ve moved to this townhouse. That threw a huge monkey wrench in our plans as my house was still is a state of disaster, and when I report the flooding, they will come in my house (plumber and landlord) to see the damage. I could not let him see the three weeks of neglect in my house. So we spent almost two hours cleaning and straightening up the downstairs. The plumbing truck was actually going door-to-door as this was once again a manhole back-up, meaning he had to move the water along in the manhole, our basements would drain, and we would need the cleaning company to come kill all the bacteria tomorrow. What a mess. We went to the gym incredibly late.

Once at the gym, it didn’t take me long to realize that this weekend’s frustrations had got to me. My mind was defeated, my adrenaline all used up, my body tired, and my body literally was refusing to complete some things properly. My box jumps, for example, should have been between 6-7 levels high. My body absolutely refused. Not even once, whether I closed my eyes, whether I reset myself, whether I tried to do it without thinking, could I do the jump with both feet. The right one would go up, the left one would do back down to the floor. I struggled. I had to put the jump back down 3 levels, something that seems like a baby jump to me now, and even so, my body seemed like it was punishing me, making it seem way harder than I know it is.

When I was in the main part doing barbell preacher curls and resistance band preacher curls, my husband saw me struggling. He came over, simply gave me a hug, and apologized for all the things that have happened. I can’t say that it gave me superb motivation and energy after that, but it did help me to at least feel good enough to power through the rest of the workout and complete 12 minutes of HIIT after. This weekend just has not been my weekend, and I’m looking forward to a better day tomorrow.

I Have A Confession: It’s Not Always That Easy…

So it’s true. I have a confession to make.

I feel as if I come across as very positive, and if I do, that’s my goal. I honestly try super hard to look for the positive in everything. That’s just who I am. I know there is usually a positive side to everything or at least a way through every tough situation. I know that. I’m naturally optimistic. I also am aware of that. And even though I’m really good at showing my optimistic side, I have to admit, it’s not always that easy.

I’m looking at today as an example. It has been weeks since I found out that the government lost my husband’s FBI report. I was mad for a couple days, got over it, and realized we do have enough time to apply for another one because he was at least issued his work permit. But I had never had the chance to call them myself until today.

For starters, there’s always a wait time on the phone. And I was using a spare at work to call so my anxiety was raising a little that they wouldn’t answer by the time my students came back.

Then, I explained my situation quickly to which the guy questioned me as if I was crazy. This didn’t help.

And on top of it all, not only did I wait, got questioned as if I had no idea what I was talking about, I got told he couldn’t do anything without speaking to my husband and he has to be here with me if I am to talk. All of that for nothing.

And after I hung up the phone (the guy offered no apology or anything and said a very quick good-bye), I realized that I had been optimistic about talking to them myself and at least figuring out what went wrong even if we had to apply again. But quite pointedly, my optimism was nothing short of dashed and I was left in a mess of anxiety and completely upset.

You know, it’s one thing to know that everything is going to be ok, because it is. I know it will be, one way or another. But I have to tell myself it’s also ok to BE in that moment, to feel what I feel. I mean, this is something that my entire heart is woven into. This whole process has cost us so much money and time and has tested our faith and strength so much. Then to hear that the man was totally unwilling to help me and not even feel bad about it? For an optimistic person like me, that’s hard to handle.

I’m a problem solver. I’m used to figuring out my own problems, my friends problems, and my students problems. That’s what I do. And to have a problem that means so much to me personally unsolved and nothing I can do about it, that’s almost heart shattering.

The thing is, I’m ok now. But at that moment, I almost had a meltdown. Mix the stress of wondering how his residency is ever going to be done, let alone the thought of citizenship afterwards. Mix that with the 20 children I’m responsible for all day. Mix that with the table full of 4+ hours worth of grading that I need to do. Mix that with the mass amount of paperwork I have to do before the end of the month to meet government deadlines for education. Sometimes it honestly gets too hard to handle.

And that’s what I want you guys to know. I do hope you gain happy influences from my blog; that you learn to hopefully see God’s hands even in the worst of things. But I don’t want to be fake; I want you to know that I’m human and sometimes life does get too much for me in the moment. I know I will pull through, I know God will carry me when I need it, but it’s ok to admit you have too much going on or too much in your head. Breaking down is a way of dealing with all of those emotions you carry, and that’s perfectly ok. Take a walk, watch a show, exercise, or lay down and listen to music. Do what it takes for you to get through that moment because when that moment has passed, however long it takes, you will be able to deal with it later or at least have the mental clarity to get the help you need. You can do it.

So there I go. Now you guys know. Life really isn’t all rainbows and butterflies but much more a cartoon strip of repeatedly falling and getting back up on your feet. The main point is not the falling, it’s about the getting back up. As long as you can do that, you’ve already won the battles you will face.

The Difficulties of Unconditional Love

My all-time favourite Bible verses are 1 Corinthians 13 (taken from Biblegateway.com).

13 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge,and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part,¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhoodbehind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

It’s such a descriptive example of what love is. There is no denying how we are supposed to love others. There is no ability to say, “I didn’t know what love meant.” This chapter says it all. This verse has all the details you need to know.

Now imagine if we took every child in the world and taught them that this is what love is. Imagine if we were to somehow impart this knowledge to the sons and daughters of the world before they embrace the dating scene. Imagine if they knew what we were saying when we looked someone in the eye and said I love you and actually meant it. Not just saying it, but actually acting that love out. This knowledge, if successfully translated in a way that children could understand, could potentially save them from experiences that could affect the rest of their lives. Mistakes that we’ve made, and hope for them to avoid.

Diving a little deeper into the “Love Chapter”: What does it really mean to love people in this way? No, it doesn’t just mean loving our spouses or family, but also the people around us. You see, Jesus did not simply pick the people He wanted to love. He loves us all. Unconditionally. And we are to become closer to His character. Which means…. we are to love all of His creations as well. The pesky neighbour, the vandalizing gang in the neighbourhood, the murderer in jail. All of them are loved by Jesus, and we are called to love and forgive them too.

Sometimes this love is so hard for me. When I have a defiant child in the class that will outright lie, ignore and challenge you. When I have an argument with someone when I know I’m right. The times that it seems others are being selfish and not thinking about the effects it could have on me. All of these things make it hard to love someone the way God calls us to.

But those verses remain. They don’t change. Sometimes it’s the patience that I need. Sometimes it’s giving up the grudges that I hold. Sometimes I need to let go of that pride, that selfishness, that anger. Sometimes I need to think of the other person before myself. And sometimes, I need to just put myself in their shoes.

Sometimes this means that I need to take a moment to myself. I need to take a few deep breaths and close my eyes. I need to remember the stupid things that I do sometimes, and the way Jesus would sit there with open arms and tell me He loves me and forgives me. Then I need to look at that child or that person through God’s lenses. That doesn’t mean discipline may not be required. But it does mean I need to love that child/person the same way God instructs me.

Unconditional love is not easy, but it is called for. I may never be perfect at it, but I must try. Our human nature is so quick to go the wrong way, yet Jesus calls us back. He calls us back into His arms to first make us feel loved so that we can share that with others. 

I encourage you to take the verses in 1 Corinthians 13 and start working on them for yourself. Not necessarily all at once, but take one part at a time. Apply it to your everyday. Apply it to the people you interact with and notice the difference it makes. 

If the world was ruled by love, there would be far less war. If the world was ruled by love, we would live in the most amazing place. You may not be able to change the whole world, but you can change a part of it. Be that change God calls you to be, and the change that people need to see. Go out and share God’s love today.