Tag Archives: love

Gentle Like a Lamb

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It’s a virtue.

It’s a weapon.

It requires true patience and compassion.

What is this “it”? Gentleness.

During the month of November, I’ve been studying gentleness as a fruit of the Spirit. The first thing I thought when the month began was that gentleness was a bit like patience: it’s a well-lauded virtue, yet still slightly overshadowed by “more prominent” virtues like love, joy, or peace. But I couldn’t have been more wrong.

After a few weeks’ study, I’ve grown to realize that gentleness is actually one of the most powerful virtues out of the nine fruits of the Spirit. And, in light of recent events surrounding Ferguson, Missouri, gentleness is a virtue that we could certainly stand to use more of in our society. Oftentimes, gentleness is put on the back-burner. On the virtuous extreme, everyone wants to exhibit grand gestures of love, kindness, or faithfulness; on the worldly extreme, the world screams, “Be loud! Be assertive! Stand your ground! Fight!” Meanwhile, gentleness is in the background, quietly waiting to be put into action, whispering, “Listen. Be gentle. Be calm. Be patient.” It’s not easily understood, but truthfully, gentleness is an important component of what makes a society – and an individual – truly great. Not “great,” as in a great, or fantastic, person to be around. But great – as in someone who is an influential warrior who wins in life for Christ and His kingdom. Continue reading →

I Wanna Know Your Heart

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I heard this song on the radio at work today, and it struck me that this…this..is literally all I want in my life.

So pull me a little closer, take me a little deeper
I wanna know Your heart, I wanna know Your heart.
Cause Your love is so much sweeter, than anything I’ve tasted.
I wanna know Your heart, I wanna know Your heart.

This was my prayer during my quiet time this morning: Lord, I just want to know You, more and more each day.

Love in the Time of Easter

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It’s so easy to witness, yet so difficult to express: the mother of all virtues, the “greatest of these.”

It’s an emotion, an action, a word.

It can’t be contained by anyone’s definition, or whittled down to a sole meaning. So what is this it?

Love.

One of my favorite times of the year is now: the week of Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter. For me, it’s a time filled with incredible hope, joy, and especially love. This April, I’ve been studying the virtue of love as a fruit of the Spirit – in other words, how are the different ways I can express Godly love to those around me? What does it mean to love others as God loves me? Love is clearly complex, but I’ve lately become so aware of the many nuances surrounding it. Its sheer complexity shocked me, such that one morning a few days ago, I thought to myself, There’s just no way I can fully understand it! Which, in hindsight, is just as well – if God is love (1 John 4:8), and there’s no way for our human minds to ever completely understand God, then it makes sense that it can be a doozy to wrap our minds around the concept of love. Continue reading →

21

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I’m completely overwhelmed.

I think this day has to be the most love-filled day I’ve ever experienced to date.

Today, February 22nd, is my 21st birthday and the joy and bountiful blessings have just been pouring in on me all day long! I always get introspective around special occasions, but this has been an especially poignant birthday for me as I’ve had time over the past few weeks to really ponder over just why I love birthdays so much. I wondered over my penchant for birthdays because I’ve known so many people who lament them, either because they’re getting older or because they don’t know of good presents to ask for or because they don’t get to spend it with certain people. But I love them (and let’s be serious – I adore mine) because it really is a celebration – God’s brought it to my awareness more in these past few weeks, but each day really is a gift. No day is promised to any person, so to have the opportunity to celebrate another year of life? That is truly a wonderful, heavenly gift that deserves to be celebrated. And even though it always shocks me how quickly time passes by, one of my co-workers put it into perspective the other day, saying that “when time passes so quickly, it’s because life is good.” So there’s no need to lament growing up another year… I see it as a time to be immensely grateful for all God has done in my life over the past year and as a time to look forward to new growth and maturity, both personally and spiritually.
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MCAT

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About four or so days ago, I took the MCAT. I can’t express how HUGE it is for me: it seems that a weight was directly lifted off of my mind. Taking the exam really gets the ball rolling with my applications to medical school coming up soon… it’s all so much more real! I haven’t been able to stop smiling since it’s been over (seriously though, I’ll be sitting at my computer working and a smile will randomly creep up on my face; It feels great to be done). And I realize that many people despair afterwards, or try to forget it, or think about the next available time to retake it, but for me? None of that. All I’ve experienced is an immense sense of peace and relaxation. It’s truly a beautiful and joyful blessing for me to have had such a wonderful experience after completing the MCAT.

I really think that the already-large amount of warm fuzzies in my heart were greatly compounded by my family and the many, many friends who came up to me afterwards, asked how the exam went, hugged me, prayed for me, wished me well, brought me celebratory meals and snacks, wrote me notes, and overall rejoiced with me as I closed that chapter of my life. One friend said, “You’ve just made a huge step in becoming a doctor by completing the MCAT!” I hadn’t thought of it that way before; sure, the MCAT is important, but I didn’t think of it as a major achievement to cross off my application to-do list.

But now, I see it for exactly what it was. A true accomplishment. And I’m just incredibly blessed to have shared that experience with the many wonderful, amazing people God has placed in my life.