“Love is patient and kind… not irritable or resentful.” 1Cor. 13:1-5
Jesus, you say tons about what love is and isn’t in 1 Cor.13, but two contrasting couplets jump out at me this morning. Love is “patient and kind,” not “irritable or resentful.” I went to bed with, and woke up with, a bit of ISS—irritable spirit syndrome. Better, I should call it “irritable spirit sinning,” because it’s not something I caught, but something I indulge.
Because I love you and others, I don’t want this to be a bad attitude day, Jesus. So I am canceling my plans for a pity party. I hereby own and relinquish my elder-brother attitude of score-carding, judgmentalism, and hair-trigger irritability. The only “triggers” I want to indulge are being triggered by your grace and kindness, and thoughts of feasting with friends on freshly caught Triggerfish from the Florida Gulf.
So, by your Spirit, settle, center, and gentle me for the day. Thank you for your steadfast love, inexhaustible patience, and perpetual kindness. May your truth, goodness, and beauty be so compelling to me, Jesus, I won’t have much heart-space left for being anybody’s judge, jury, and jailer.
Jesus, grant me and my fellow grace-needy friends, kindness of heart, quick repentances, and joy in loving to your glory today. And thank you for the coming, eternal Day we will never have to pray this prayer again. So Very Amen.
