Learning to Love

Having a good quiet time when your children are little is so challenging. They are VERY necessary, but hard to come by! But I have found that if I set realistic expectations like ten minutes here and ten minutes there, it becomes way less frustrating. Therefore, books like Streams in the Desert and Jesus Calling have become essentials in my life. Just a verse to meditate on and some great commentary. Nancy recently started reading Streams in the Desert, so I decided to copy her and pick up my copy again. I thought the one I read this morning was too wonderful not to share. Here are just a few little clips from September 2:

"If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another." 1 John 4:11

The great business of a true Christian life is to learn to love...Life with all it's experiences is just our chance of learning love...Our one thing is to master this lesson. We may learn the finest arts of life-music, painting, sculpture, or may master the noblest sciences,....but if in all this we do not learn love, and become more gentle in spirit and act, we have missed the prize of living. If in the midst of all our duties, cares, trials, joys, sorrows, we are not day by day growing in sweetness, in gentleness, in unselfishness, in thoughtfulness, and in all the branches of love, we are not learning the great lesson set for us by our Master in this school of life.

Doesn't that simplify so much of our daily lives? I can remember hearing an older Christian lady being asked, "If you could pass on one piece of information to all young Christians, what would it be?" Her answer: Love God and love people and the rest will fall into place. 

I love that! And I need to be asking myself, Am I becoming sweeter, gentler, more thoughtful, less selfish? Am I becoming more loving with each passing month and year? Is my soul aim to be loving? Just something to think about today that encouraged me. Hope it encourages you too!