Love is...kind

Love is kind.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love is...

Kind.

I'm sitting down to write this after coming off of a 3 hour meltdown with my son (we are experiencing an early onset of the terrible twos). So, I have been practicing patient love for the past 3 hours.

Kind.

Love is....

Admittedly, I can deal with the many translations that say "love is kind". When I look at the translation in The Message Bible, it makes this characteristic of love a bit more difficult to digest.

"Love cares more for others than for self".

How does that translate to being kind? In our many different human relationships, it is easy to believe we are kind, but when we look at it from the context of caring more for others than for self, it's not so easy anymore. How do you care more for someone than for yourself when that other person has misused you? How do you continue to practice a kind love when the person just doesn't seem deserving?

Ask Jesus. He did it and continues to do it today. It's called loving from a distance. Humility is difficult to have. Especially when it means that you must love someone in spite of all they have done.

I can relate today's characteristic to many relationships in my life. It is so easy when disagreements occur to see fault in the other person. Today's love that we are talking about seeks to see the best in the other person, and causes us to self examine more.

Together, love endures long and is patient and kind. Practice caring more for others today. Practice being patient today. Endure.

Love is...