Keeping love in our hearts

BrendaBy Brenda Cannon Henley
“Hatred stirs up strifes, but love covers all sins.”
(Proverbs 10:12)
“Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.” (Proverbs 15:17)
“By this all men shall know you are my disciples if you have love one to another.” (John 13:35)

For lack of space, I have not listed the many verses that discuss love in the Scripture. There are so many that I was beginning to feel overwhelmed just reading them. I have been thinking all day about love and how we act if we have love in our hearts and then, my mind wandered to how we act if we don’t have love in our hearts.

Funny thing I realized is that we don’t know exactly when we are going to need it most, and it is far better to already have love safely abiding in our hearts than to have to worry about garnering it in when we need it most. Have you ever had an experience that just made you so very mad that you could spit nails? Perhaps someone acted in a bullying fashion and caused great pain and discomfort to another individual. There might have been a case where a human being deliberately set out to hurt another by not including him or her or pointing out fragilities and fears to others. Maybe theft of goods, services, or intellectual property caused you or someone you love to become quite angry.

It is difficult to always remain calm, cool, and collected, even though that is what most of us would like to think we are, at least most of the time. My mother often quoted something to me about righteous indignation when she was particularly upset with a friend or family member.

Today, this very day, when this subject was taking residence in my heart, a situation arose that caused me to become angry and dismayed. “How could you have done that?” was my first conscious thought. “Were you not thinking of those your actions hurt?” was perhaps the second. I stepped away long enough to pray and ask the Lord to fill me with His love and His sweet peace and to help me keep my mouth shut.

A sweet friend sent me a quote with a cartoon that read, “Some days my greatest accomplishment is just keeping my mouth closed.” I find that true, too, at times.

Others see Jesus in us when we act, and more importantly, react, in love. It is difficult not to smart off, scream out, and speak violently, but those words usually come back to hurt us and to hurt others. Jesus taught us to love one another, and even when that is most difficult, it is usually best. This world is filled with enough pain, suffering, evil, and hurt and we do not need to add our portion. I believe that folks of all ages are hungry for loving hearts and kind people.

I pray today that the dear Lord will help me remember to speak and act, and think, in love. Would you join me in this prayer?

Brenda Cannon Henley can be reached at (409) 781-8788 or at [email protected].

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