When we began this week on Sunday we read about Spiritual gifts in chapter 12. We saw that there is no “I” in “team” and that everyone in the church has gifts and needs to be using their gifts to help the church grow and carry out its mission.
There is one key transitional sentence at the end of chapter 12 leading into chapter 13: “And I will show you a still more excellent way.” The more excellent way is the way of love. From Monday to Friday, we have looked at love, not as an abstract idea but as a concrete set of actions. Love is made up of behaviors that are patterned after God. When we love we show people who God is and what God does.
Today, we look at how Paul closes out this “Love chapter” in verses 8-13:
Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Here as Paul brings this section to completion he brings home the point. It’s important to be gifted, to use your gifts and talents to serve in the Church and to serve God in the world, but as important as those gifts are, they are not the ultimate or final good, they are penultimate or next to last good. To speak a prophetic word to exhort a congregation is important, to exercise the gift of speaking to the world in ways that are understood by people of different languages is valuable, and knowledge is a necessary good to a flourishing life and church, but all of these are penultimate good, not ultimate. They will give way to the eternal, but love will outlast everything. At the end of all things love for God is love.
I’m getting older and I have some serious health challenges which remind me that I am a mortal person. Unless Jesus Christ returns very soon I will one day join those who have gone to “sleep in the dust of the earth” (Daniel 12:2) awaiting the resurrection. As I get closer to my personal end, I am more aware of that which is truly most important in life. It’s not my accomplishments, it’s not how much money I’ve earned, at the end of the day what matters most is “Did I love?” Jesus summed up the entire teaching of God with 2 things: “Love God and Love others”. Paul is adding more depth and clarity to what love looks like and what we all should aspire to be. Every morning we should ask, “God, how can I love well today?” And at the end of the day ask “God, how well did I love today?”
Reflection Questions
When you hear the words “Love never ends” what comes to your mind?
Why do you think Paul says that being loving is even more important than being gifted?
When will you start to begin your days asking “God, how can I love well today?” And at the end of the day ask “God, how well did I love today?”
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Through this week of reading through 1 Corinthians 13 Paul is giving us concrete examples of what It means to love. He’s building this message into a kind of crescendo. Like a great symphony or chorale masterwork, the various themes of the story build on themselves. Here he is moving toward the peak of this love song with 4 things that love does: love bears, love believes, love hopes and love endures. That would be a lot. But he adds “all things.”
I could take time and give you a detailed exegesis of what each of these words means in the original Greek and how they are used in Corinthians and throughout Paul’s writings and the Bible as a way to arrive at their precise meanings, but I’m not going to do that. Instead, I’m going to tell you a story.
I grew up in a loving family. My father was a pastor and also a school teacher. My mom was a pastor’s wife and drove a school bus and took care of our family, keeping us fed every day precisely at 6 p.m., our clothes washed and our house neat. I felt loved and supported along with my 2 older sisters Cheryl and Debbie. I was the baby, younger than my two older siblings by 7 and 10 years. My parents were in their early 40’s, our family was settled and my oldest sister had already left the nest and gotten married. I was an active boy, a happy ‘tween who played baseball and basketball and hadn’t started noticing girls yet at eleven, but life was sweet. We went to Church every Sunday and learned about God and his love for us.
Then the world changed. My Mom found out that she was going to have another baby. Surprise! Jeff, you’re not going to be the youngest child anymore, you get to be a big brother. I couldn’t wait, after years of being the only boy, the little brother who had to listen to his older sisters who both loved me but could also be a bit bossy. Sometimes it felt like I had a Dad and 3 Moms telling me what to do. Now I would have a little brother to boss around and to show how to hit a baseball and shoot a free throw. I even had a name picked out for my little brother, Scott. I don’t know why I picked that name, but that was the name I picked for my little brother.
As it turned out, “Scott” was born a little girl, whom my parents named Christine Noelle (she was born right after Christmas so she got a very Christmasy-sounding name). Before I got to meet my little sister (I got over the fact that she was not my little brother Scott) my parents shared that she was a special child. She was born with some differences in her little body that made her look different from other babies that I had known and she would not be able to do all the things that other children did in the way that they did them. The name for my sister’s condition was called Down’s Syndrome. I didn’t fully understand what that meant, but I was glad when my parents got to bring her home and we all loved her very much.
For the next 50 years my Father and Mother, and after my father died my mother alone, provided love and care for Christine. She received cutting-edge health care. She had multiple surgeries to repair things that normally didn’t function well in children with Down’s Syndrome that would help extend her life. She started getting therapy and schooling and grew to be a happy and loving young woman.
I found out many years later, as an adult, that when she was born her doctor advised my parents to have her institutionalized. He said she would never live with a good quality of life and would be a burden to them. It would be best for them, for the family, and everyone else to let her be put away. I am so glad that my parents did not listen to the advice of their physician but to the love of God in their hearts.
My mother, who is now 90 has spent the last 50 years loving my sister Christine. Christine has spent the last 50 years loving my mom. My mom has spent 50 years bearing, believing, hoping, and enduring many trials and challenges while caring for my sister. She has been for me, a model of what Paul talks about when he describes what true love is all about.
At 90, my Mom has come to recognize her limits, she will not be around forever to care for Christine, but even now she is acting in love to help prepare my sister to live a good and flourishing life after my Mom is no longer here.
I could tell many other stories about love that I have seen and experienced in my life.
When we love in selfless ways we bear God’s image to the world.
Pastor Jeff Fletcher
Reflection Questions
Think of a person in your life who modeled a selfless love for others. What does their life teach you about God’s love?
Why does Paul connect bearing, believing, hoping and enduring all things with concrete examples of love?
What is something you can do today to show selfless love for another?
Yesterday we saw that Paul is not interested in talking about love as an abstract concept. Abstract love is worthless. True love is only proven to be of value by concrete actions. In today’s reading, 1 Corinthians 13:4 Paul starts giving concrete examples.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude.
We could pick out any one of those examples and do a deep dive into what patience looks like versus impatience or what kindness looks like versus cruelty. But I think we could place them under one major subheading. If love is the main theme of this chapter, the subheading over these 6 things is humility. Humble people will tend to be more patient. Think about it. If I think I’m better or more important than the other person, I’m going to demand that my needs take priority and so I’m going to be impatient with the server in a restaurant, or the cashier at checkout, or the secretary at the doctor’s office. Impatient people tend to think that their time is more valuable than anyone else’s so their needs should be met now. And of course, if they are impatiently placing demands on other people they are not likely to be expressing them with kindness. Patience and kindness are concrete examples of love in the form of humility.
The other four examples Paul gives, envy, boasting, arrogance, and rudeness are all the antithesis of humility. They are all driven by pride. “Why should my coworker get the promotion, she doesn’t deserve it. I’m a far better employee than she is and I have several examples I’d like to give you about why I’m much better than she is.”
I read a story earlier this week about a famous basketball player. The NBA gives out individual accolades to players and they announced the top three finalists for defensive player of the year. The reporter asked this player how he felt about not being one of the finalists for that award. He proceeded to rant about how “The NBA just doesn’t like me. I deserve that award more than any of them, I’m the best defensive player in the league.” When I read his response I felt disgusted about his arrogance put on such vulgar display with his rude and demeaning words about literally everyone in the league. But this is how things are in the world. We’ve come to reward boastful, rude, and arrogant people.
Narcissism is no longer considered a character flaw but makes one a popular candidate seeking high political office. Have you seen how rude certain candidates are as they call others rude names like children on a playground? Humility is seen by many in the world’s eyes as weakness. But not in God’s eyes. James 4:6 says “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
Jesus taught the importance of humility so clearly when he said “Blessed are the meek (humble) for they shall inherit the earth.” Matthew 5:5
He told a very vivid story comparing and contrasting a proud person and a humble person in Luke 18:9-14: He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
The world rewards the proud and arrogant boasters who brag about how great they are. True love is evidenced by the humble who don’t think too much of themselves but rather show patience and kindness to others. As the character Forrest Gump said: “I’m not a smart man, but I know what love is.”
Pastor Jeff Fletcher
Reflection Questions
Can you think of someone who you would describe as humble? What behaviors make you think of them as humble?
Why does our culture seem to reward arrogance in places like sports or politics?
CS Lewis said that “Humility is not thinking less of yourself but of thinking of yourself less.” How can thinking of yourself less help you to love others more?
For the rest of this week, we are going to be looking each day at small sections of one chapter in the Bible- 1 Corinthians 13. When I was a kid I was taught that 1 Corinthians 15 is the Resurrection chapter, Hebrews 11 is the Hope chapter, and 1 Corinthians 13 is the Love chapter. If you’ve ever been to a wedding ceremony there is a good chance that you’ve heard all or at least a portion of this read as part of the ceremony. Today we will look at verses 1-3:
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
This is such a timely reading for me to consider. For the past 3 years, I’ve been working toward receiving my Doctorate of Ministry from Vanderbilt Divinity School in Nashville. It’s been a lot of hard work. For my project I read hundreds of articles and books, conducted interviews, presented ideas to colleagues, tested ideas on various groups, and wrote, edited, re-wrote, and re-edited until I had a project to present to my committee. Then after my committee read it, we met and I had to defend my project thesis orally. Finally, on April 9 I passed. On May 10 I’ll graduate and receive my official title D.Min, Doctor of Ministry in Integrative Mental Health Chaplaincy. The afternoon I passed my wife Karen said “Hello, Dr. Fletcher.” I said, “That’s the only time you’re ever going to call me that, right?” She said, “Absolutely, I hope you enjoyed it.”
So, I’ve been feeling relieved, accomplished, grateful, and good about having achieved this milestone in my academic and professional career.
But God had a lot more to teach me. And Brother Paul put his finger on it. In 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 Paul is saying a lifetime of accomplishments, being a gifted speaker, full of knowledge, or being spiritually gifted with miraculous powers, in the absence of concrete acts of love, is just a bunch of noise. You can get all the degrees and accolades and knowledge, but if you don’t put love into practice, it’s a bunch of noise and worthless.
It reminds me of a story I once heard: There was a child psychologist who was famous and had written many best-selling books on parenting and how to raise children. Recently, he had spent many hours constructing a new driveway at his home. Just after he smoothed the surface of the freshly poured concrete, his neighbors’ small children chased a ball across the driveway, leaving deep footprints. The man yelled after them with a torrent of angry words. His shocked neighbor heard these words and said to him, “You’re a psychologist who’s supposed to love children.” The fuming man shouted, “I love children in the abstract, not in the concrete!”
Paul is saying in I Corinthians 13:1-3 that love in the abstract is worthless.
A few days later, God showed me what love in the concrete looks like. I shared the following story on my Facebook page recently. It resonated with a lot of people because it’s been shared hundreds of times and I’ve heard more responses to it than anything else I’ve ever posted on social media. It illustrates to me what Love in the Concrete looks like:
I met Jesus yesterday. Face to face.
He’s a cashier at a grocery store in Front Royal, Virginia.
I was on my way home from work after a busy Monday visiting sick patients at the hospital, supporting families as their loved ones face the end of life, helping people struggling with addiction and staff cope with the challenges of being full-time caregivers. I’m a chaplain and a pastor, that’s what I do all day. It’s what I’ve trained to do, studied, practiced.
But then, yesterday, out of the blue, with no warning I met Jesus working the register at a grocery store.
First, I saw him patiently help the customer ahead of me. The one who only had 3 items in her cart, was very confused trying to figure out how much she could spend because she needed to have enough left over. He was gentle and patient with her. He couldn’t be more than his late teens, maybe early 20s, but he was attentive and caring. No eye rolls or looks of frustration, just caring for this confused and frustrated woman. (I was the one who was frustrated at how long it was taking).
Then it was finally my turn to check out. He was a thin young man, wearing a cross made of horseshoe nails and wire. He smiled and asked gently, “May I pray for you?”
That was unexpected and caught me completely off guard. I said, “Yes, please.” I was so moved that this young man would take the time to notice me and ask if he could pray for me. This was more than a transactional relationship for him. He was there to do more than simply earn his paycheck and go home. He saw me as more than an object, a thing to help pay his bills, he saw me as a person, a human being made in the image of God, who has a life outside of this 5-minute transaction and has needs that can be helped by God’s intervention. I was deeply moved.
But he wasn’t finished.
“What would you like me to pray for?” What should I say? How specific should I be? Should I say, “I’m currently under treatment for 2 types of advanced cancer and trying my best to keep going?” Should I tell him about my concerns about family members that I love, my desire to help my Church grow, and all the needs of the people I visit and staff I serve in the hospital?
There wasn’t time to go into all of that, so I simply said “My health.”
He stopped and said, “So you are having health problems. I’ll pray for that.”
By then the tears were starting to well up in me and I hurriedly helped him bag my groceries so I could get out of there before I started ugly crying in the grocery store check-out line.
But he wasn’t done yet.
“What’s your name?” That about finished me off. He wasn’t just making conversation or using spiritual cliches like “I’ll pray for you” as well-intentioned people often do, but sometimes forget to actually do. I knew that he really meant it. He was and is praying for me, Jeff, who has health needs. And based on what I saw, he’s already pretty close to God. So I have a feeling God will listen attentively to his prayers.
As I sat in my car afterward waiting for the tears to subside, I had the overwhelming sense that I had just spent time with Jesus.
I met Jesus yesterday.
He works as a cashier at a grocery store in Front Royal, Virginia.
Since I shared this on Facebook I’ve had dozens of people who live locally write to me or tell me in the hospital that this same young man has left others equally in tears when he prayed for them and they, too, equally felt touched by Jesus.
This young man probably doesn’t have a doctorate in spiritual care, but you don’t need one of those to show people concrete love in the name of Jesus. Go and be Jesus wherever you are today.
Pastor Jeff Fletcher
Reflection Questions
Name a time when you were surprised by God’s love revealed to you in unexpected places.
How would you describe the difference between abstract love and concrete love?
The young man showed Jesus’ love while checking people out at the grocery store. Where can you show the love of Jesus today?
Old Testament Reading: Numbers Introduction – see below
1 Corinthians 13 (The Love Chapter) actually begins at the end of Chapter 12 with these words, “And now I will show you the most excellent way.” Paul has just wrapped up his lists of Spiritual gifts, reminding us that we, as Christians, are all members of the body of Christ. After telling us that we should desire the higher (more essential or useful) gifts, he states that there is an even better way to be useful to the body. The most excellent way.
Chapter 13 begins with an IF. IF I am great, IF I can do great things, IF I can understand great things, IF I make great sacrifices….
What are you really good at? Known for? Everyone in our church knows Todd is phenomenal with numbers. He has often said it’s too bad he can’t make a living impressing people with his quick math skills. Everyone is good at something, but that might not matter in the big picture.
The IF part in the first three verses is followed each time with “but have not love”. You can be the greatest at everything, but if you don’t have love you are “a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal”, “nothing’, “gain nothing”. That’s pretty powerful. What motivates us to do what we do obviously matters a great deal. Paul is trying to communicate with us the overriding importance of love.
You’ve probably heard verses 4-8a read at a wedding. A beautiful description of how to love. One that we cannot fully accomplish in our humanity. Pulling from different translations, here is the description of true love:
Love is: patient; kind; rejoices with the truth; bears all things; believes all things; hopes all things; endures all things; it always protects, trusts, hopes, and perseveres; it never ends or fails.
Love is not: it does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant, proud, or rude; it does not insist on its own way; it is not self-seeking; it is not easily angered; it keeps no record of wrongs; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing.
Love won’t end. Spiritual gifts, and our need for them will end. Prophecies will end. Speaking in tongues will end. Knowledge will end. Love will not end.
Keep in mind as you read these lists that God loves us like that. God loves YOU like that. John 13:34-35 says, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” We are to love others how God loves us. It’s what shows the world we are His.
-Todd and Amy Blanchard
Reflection Questions
Do you KNOW that God loves you with a love that is described here? Do you FEEL His love? What steps might you need to take to assure yourself of that love?
On a scale of 1-10, how well do you love others (following the description of love in this chapter)?
Which of the “Love is” or “Love is not” traits do you see from God in your life right now?
NUMBERS INTRODUCTION
The book of Numbers gets its name from the census that was taken both at the beginning of the book, while the Israelites were still at Mount Sinai, and also at the end of the book, when the Israelites were on the plains of Moab near Jericho 38 years later. And in case you’re wondering why it took the ancient Israelites so long to travel from Egypt to the Promised Land, you’ll find out in chapters 13 and 14. And by the way, this wasn’t just a small group of people walking through the desert – there were millions of them.
As you read through Numbers, you will see repeatedly that there are consequences for complaining and rebellion – and they aren’t good. Punishments range from fire from the Lord to the earth swallowing people alive to plagues to snakes. There will even be punishment for Moses’ striking a rock instead of speaking to it – because he didn’t obey God’s command.
You will read about Moses begging God repeatedly to spare the people, when God wanted to wipe them out because of their rebellion – reminding us of what Jesus is doing on our behalf in heaven right now. You’ll also read about a bronze snake lifted up on a pole, which Jesus compared with himself.
The story of Balaam and his talking donkey show that God can use anyone, even a donkey, even me, even you. You’ll also read about how Balaam told the Moabites what to do to cause God to curse Israel – even after Balaam had blessed Israel. And you’ll read that he paid with his life.
Numbers is filled with excitement, and also with examples – both good and bad. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 10:6, “Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.” So pay attention as you read.
I’ll close with Numbers 6:24-26, “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.”
The simplest truth about human relationships is that if we just loved one another a bit more, we would have fewer problems. I know, it is a bit cliche, but it doesn’t make it any less true. Our focus would be consistently outward. We would be ready to listen and meet the needs of others. God has made it pretty clear that the most hardened heart can soften by showing the quality that embodies who He is, yet it is a weapon we often leave unwelded. We often list our harshness or judgements under the guise of “tough love”, and this may or may not be true on a case-by-case basis. However, we must stick closely to the prescribed path in 1 Corinthians 13. It actually might be simpler to love “toughly”, but if you simply write people off, or find a way to punish them, or speak your mind without backing it up with the many other qualities listed here, you are a hollow box and a lot of noise. What’s tough love, really tough love, is to love someone who isn’t concerned in the slightest with being like God at the moment, or even ever. Love never fails. So you must love. You absolutely must. And your love must be like God’s love. Below I reworded one of the most famous passages of scriptures (v.4-7) that coincides with our reading and, most likely, one of the last handful of weddings you attended. My goal isn’t to add to the list, only to reword it to give it novelty in hopes to make it challenging or convicting instead of a rehearsal of familiar words. If it helps tune your mind to God’s love, wonderful. If it is a confusing mess, don’t read it. My concern is that you know loving is tough, especially those whose actions betray your love. That shouldn’t stop you. But THAT is tough love. And THAT is what God shows to each one of us on the daily.
For God to come in and change the “unlovable” (mind you, this can be and has been you), you must sit and listen. Listen to their problems and hear them say what they think, even if you don’t agree. You have to include them, share with them, and treat them with dignity, even if they are not concerned in the slightest about having any. To love, you have to let others be great and cheer them on. Sometimes this means the spotlight will come off of you, or you are treated as less important. If you are loving, you’re not concerned with that, because in love, others come first. Love holds back the insults, name-calling, and doesn’t attack a person made in the image of God. True love can be shown without expecting anything in return and can be left unreciprocated. On rare occasions, you can have angry love. You can be mad at someone because they are doing some serious sin damage to others or even him/herself. But you don’t start there. You don’t live there. You are truthful with someone, because lying is not loving. But you retreat quickly from the fight, and fill the space with mercy, more patience, and more kindness. That means love is forgiveness, and not holding grudges. We can love those who have wronged us. We can love those who have besmirched our reputation, injured our family through carelessness, or hate us because of our beliefs. We may know their wrong to us as a historical account, but not as an emotional one, and we thank God we have an opportunity to show love to them in such a way. In fact, loving like God means that you would actually stand-up for this person who has done you the greatest harm. Loving someone means that you are trusting without “but.” And that can be so hard. But trusting in God first and foremost allows you to do that. Believe in people. Never give up on people. Much easier said than done. It’s tough. So tough. But don’t let it stop you from trying. Your efforts are to help others see God, and they will know His love because it has been extended to and shown through you.
-Aaron Winner
Today’s Bible reading passages can be read or listened to at BibleGateway here –Esther 1-2 and 1 Corinthians 13
This chapter starts out with an admonition to “test the spirits to see whether they are of God.” Not every teaching or spirit is true. There is a very important test which can be used to know if a spirit is from God, or not. “By this you know the spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God” (4:2).The test does NOT say:
that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh and yet is fully God
that God has come in the flesh as Jesus Christ, taking on a human nature
that Jesus Christ came from some pre-existent state into the flesh.
We must be very careful to read the text for what it says and not read into it what it doesn’t say! The phrase “come in the flesh” means that Jesus the Christ (Messiah) is a real human being, not just dressed up like one.
1 John 4 is actually the “love chapter” in the Bible as love is mentioned 26 times, almost three times as many times as in 1 Corinthians 13 (9 times). A friend once read this chapter as a devotional thought on Valentine’s Day, and it stuck with me as the “love chapter.” So much so that when I read it last February 14th, I thought that maybe the children’s song could also go “Yes, God loves me, yes, God loves me… the Bible tells me so.”Ultimately, it’s God’s love that ignites our love for others through His Son, Jesus the Messiah. A key verse that summarizes this chapter of love showing how love is of God is verse 9.“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to bethe propitiation for our sins.”
God took the initiative, motivated by love, to remedy our sin problem.
Knowing that “God is love” (4:8,16) should motivate us to love others. But the author is not calling for a hippie kind of “All you need is love, love”. He is admonishing us to a love of other “brothers” who believe that Jesus, the human Jesus, is the Messiah/Christ (5:1). This admonition to love is a call for unity among like-minded believers, because they are family as the children of God. The way we love other like-minded believers whom we can see demonstrates how much we love God, whom we can’t see. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also (4:21).
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. (4:7)
I Corinthians 13. The ‘love’ chapter. Has any passage of Scripture been read at more weddings?
Let me ask you, what’s the difference between the wedding and the marriage? We typically spend years planning and orchestrating one to be perfect and we waltz into the other without a thought and expect it to go off without a hitch. And that’s sad.
It’s sad that this passage that so eloquently captures what real love should be is relegated to a romantic poem.
This description of love is raw. It is get your hands dirty, give up your ‘rights’, lay down what you want, doesn’t feel good kind of real.
Patient
Kind
Trusting
Humble
Not rude
Not selfish
Not angry
Doesn’t bring up past wrongs
Protective
Never gives up
Who wouldn’t want to be married to THAT person?! Right? But being that person, well, that’s a big ask.
I think it’s great if you want to read this passage at your wedding. (Pro tip if you do: Rehearse) But remember to take the time to dig in to each one of these descriptors that Paul gives us. You know which ones are hardest for you.
Think about how many hours you put into wedding planning. Does your marriage deserve any less?
Check out this post that includes some helpful resources for building a strong marriage as well as advice from a number of married couples that have stood the test of time: https://thesparrowshome.com/marriage-resources-advice/
Seek Grow Love 