how do you spell love?

How do you spell love?  And for most of us that answer is L-O-V-E, but that is not what I mean.  What are some characteristics of love that might get shoved aside, forgotten or missed because we are busy or simply overrun by life?

There are many of those qualities that we talk about.  Think through 1 Corinthians 13 for a minute and all that we see there: love is patience, kind, believes all things, hope, never fails and more.  Love is seen in it’s greatest form when it is selfless.  Or love is best when it is the God kind of love, which is unconditional.  UNCONDITIONAL is a big deal because most of us don’t love that way and haven’t been loved that way.  Do you agree?

That is why I find myself contemplating some of the ways I love.  By the way, I am far from unconditional.  Too often I find myself, at least inside, being judge and jury especially of those closest to me.  I mean it is easy to love the people I see once and may never see again.

Relationships matter.  More than stuff, more than anything else, the people around us matter, and those closest to us need our commitment to loving. 

When you love like Jesus loves, you’ll live like Jesus lives. – Bob Goff

How do you spell love?  Here are 3 words today that might help us.

To share life with others is one way to spell love.  As we share our lives with others is to give joy, enjoyment, purpose, meaning to those in my influence

Sharing life is really about being selfless to serve others.

John 15:13 NASB

Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.

Accepting people as they are is another way to spell love.  When we accept people, it doesn’t mean we condone all they do.

Romans 15:7  NASB

Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.

When we accept the people we encounter, we impart to each the hope and encouragement God has given us.  We give confidence that comes from faith in God.

If God likes me, and I like me, and you don’t like me, then what’s your problem?  Our confidence comes from listening to what God says about me.  --- Rick Warren

Hebrews 10:35 NASB


Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.

The last way I will suggest to spell love today is by sharing our time with others.  When we give time, it is a huge way we back up the simple words “I love you”.  This is most likely our greatness of influence on others

John 13:35 NASB

"By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

May our lives literally let others know that we love them by not just saying we love a person.  By sharing life, accepting others and giving our time we will let others know that they are important to us and that we love them.