Love Extravagantly

I told Bryan I wanted to pick a theme for our family this year, and that I wanted it to start with me being nicer.

Because normally I’m a lot like Ouiser…

…and that’s just setting a bad example for the kids.

We decided on 1 Corinthians 13 from The Message:

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.”

Love doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel.

Love takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything.

Love trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

Love never dies.

Less than 8 hours after making this decision I wanted to punch Paul in the face for writing it.

Who the hell “puts up with anything”?!

I can think of a hundred things I couldn’t put up with today, which I made CRYSTAL CLEAR to everyone under four feet tall within ear shot.

Oh. Right.

Jesus.

Paul ends this passage by saying we have three things to do before we die:

“Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly.
And the best of the three is love.”

Today was a little rough, and I did not love extravagantly. And when I held my crying child who eventually melted into a pile of soft snuggles, I wondered if the day might have gone a little better had I loved more extravagantly.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll get to find out.