What are you letting into your life?  Are you living true to yourself?  Are you considering your life’s mission?  Do you have goals for creating a new vision?  Well, it’s time to seek them.  What are your intentions?  Are you open to infinite possibilities?  If you don’t consider taking action on these questions you’ll be robbing yourself of the chance to discover the real you.  In undertaking the nature of this discovery you’ll not only be seeking your gifts, but building your faith.  Your outlook about life will improve and you’ll see a world of possibilities.

 Practice & Exercise

Your goal should be to achieve a balanced self.  This starts with listening, breathing in fresh air, taking long walks, and meditating.  These opportunities provide ways for you to enjoy the sunshine, dream, and put into practice your goals.  These are ways of caring.  You must engage in honest conversations with loved ones.  Do so at times when you aren’t distracted by the demands of life. Use your time wisely for physical workouts and hobbies.

Put moments aside for other tasks for developing your mind.  Joseph Addison (1672–1719), an English playwright and politician observed, “Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.”  Your objective is to build both mind and body.  But first ask yourself what’s working right with you?  Some people approach life wrongly, by focusing on negative attributes.  You must accentuate the positive.

 Moral Stamina

It’s important to be responsible for your actions.  Discover peace in the world by being a peacemaker with neighbors and friends.  In asking the hard questions explore ways for doing things better.  Don’t succumb to quick fixes nor delight in mediocrity.  Live a qualitative life.  Your journey should be one of self-improvement.  With an open mind you’ll find issues aren’t always black or white.  Try understanding the gray areas.  It’s okay to make mistakes in judgment.  We all do.  One thing you can do is to recheck your thinking, and re-calibrate your thoughts.  This process is hard work, but is fun and interesting.  In all things practice humility, be brave, develop moral stamina, and don’t pass judgment on others.

Life’s Transformation

A Canadian American sports coach, James Naismith (1861–1939) admonished, “Be strong in body, clean in mind, lofty in ideals.”  These are goals we should emulate. The body is a temple, so treat it with respect.  Free yourself from both big and small fears.  By discovering your weaknesses and acting on them calls for taking steps that’s empowering.  People must be able to laugh at themselves.  It was the novelist of 1984, essayist and journalist George Orwell (1903–1950), who wrote, “Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else.”  That’s why having a clean mind is important for a healthy body.

Christians believe that God is the beginning of their new birth – being born again in Christ we’re a new creation.  So, it’s only right and wise to dependent on Christ, for he’s our Provider and nourishment.  Through him we can do all things.  Daily we must pray for his guidance and that his will is done in our life.  Be at peace when faced with trials and tribulations.  We’re able to do many things, but what’s important is doing that which is right.

Love sustains all things.  Knowing and loving God is the true path of life.  It unites us in tender ways.  With love’s creativeness all things come alive.  But before we accomplish these blessings we’ve to be faithful to him.  That’s why wherever we go we must sow love.  In kindling this fire we’ll be ambassadors of his most precious gift.  We must do so by loving each other with a passion and walking in his ways.

Ann Landers, a pen name for Esther Pauline “Eppie” Lederer (1918–2002), an American advice columnist observed, “Love is friendship that has caught fire.  It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving.  It is loyalty through bad and good times.  It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses.”  Of such is the nature of love.

Truth & Love

Truth and love are soul mates.  To love others is to be truly dedicated.  The beauty of love is steadfast and coming through the gift of the Holy Spirit.  That’s why we always have to be prepared to share our loving-kindness in the world.  This gift is wondrously and greatly blessed by God.  So we express a communion with other Christians.

However, loving others must not be taken for granted.  John Lennon (1940–1980), a singer and songwriter explained, “We’ve got this gift of love, but love is like a precious plant.  You can’t just accept it and leave it in the cupboard or just think it is going to get on by itself.  You’ve got to keep watering it.  You’ve got to really look after it and nurture it.”  For Christians that means being in the Word and with people.  That’s how we’ll grow our faith.  Love is indeed transforming when we’re in the service of proclaiming it.

Beauty of Love

The beauty of love is addictive.  It comes by putting it into practice.  Pietro Aretino (1492–1556), an Italian author, playwright and poet believed, “I love you, and because I love you, I would sooner have you hate me for telling you the truth than adore me for telling you lies.”  Aretino declared that he was prepared to live by his conscience.  He felt that even if such a life was unpopular, we must put love into practice.  This gift is too valuable to compromise.  Let words be the love of our lives.

By being aflame with Christ’s love takes on different forms.  Marian Keyes (b. 1963), an Irish novelist wrote, “Some think love can be measured by the amount of butterflies in their tummy.  Others think love can be measured in bunches of flowers, or by using the words ‘for ever.’  But love can only be truly measured by actions.  It can be a small thing, such as peeling an orange for a person you love because you know they don’t like doing it.”  So why should we be focusing on big things we feel show love and miss the smaller things?

When we say we’re fired up with love we’ve surely blossomed.  It’s this love that keeps hope alive.  We’re therefore inspired to do good works for the poor, destitute, sick, and dying.  With golden rays we touch their poor souls – of the forgotten brothers and sisters of the world.  We become like bridges by showing what to do for the less fortunate.  These works are worthy of his love.  It’s moving a step forward, for love and friendship go hand in hand.

Jodi Picoult (b. 1966), an author observed, “You don’t love someone because they’re perfect, you love them in spite of the fact that they’re not.”  Some people especially the young are rather confused about love.  They ask, “What does it mean? Am I in love?  How do I know it’s true?”  They claim to be in love, but their passion may be a mere attraction.  Others feel sure about love.  “Love,” they say, “hit them right between the eyes.”

Some confuse love with sex.  “If you love me, you’ll go to bed with me.”  Sometimes sex can be a healthy expression of love, but it isn’t always the case.  Love is subtle and has various meanings.  It’s deeper than you think.  For example, Jesus Christ died for us on the cross.  He gave his life so that we might have everlasting life.  This act was the epitome of love.  Its sacrificial love – Agape is the greatest love of all.

Forms of Love

There are however other forms of love.  Brotherly, sisterly and parental love is common.  Scripture tells us that we must love our neighbor like ourselves.  Whatever good things you wish for yourself, wish for your neighbor.  You must feel the same way about him or her.  There ought to be no difference between how you feel, and about what you think about your neighbors.

Walk in Humility

We have to live in humility.  Scripture tells us we must even go a step further and love our neighbors greater that ourselves.  What a duty that is!  Many are negligent in doing this.  Imagine what such an act will mean to mankind.  Obviously, if we loved in this way, we wouldn’t be so puffed up about ourselves.  We’ll regard one’s self as lesser than another.  That’s a good thing because our egos won’t be so inflated.

Often we hear people comparing themselves with others.  Some actually judge and boast about what they have accomplished.  They say how great they are and how their coworkers don’t have any experience compared with them.  This is a rather shameful display of pride.  God has given us all talents and gifts.  We ought to give thanks to him for those we have.  People’s talents and gifts are here today and gone tomorrow.  Nothing is promised to anyone.  There’s a season and time for everything under the sun.

Love in a Hospital

Imagine this love – when a spouse is in the hospital, and his wife is beside him.  He’s in pain.  His agony is great from the Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) that’s systemic – in his blood stream.  His wife is so concerned that she spends several nights at his bedside in his hospital room.  Throughout the day and night, nurses, doctors and care-givers come and go, but this patient is unable to sleep.  He’s on tranquilizers to calm his nerves, and watches anxiously the antibiotics of the saline drip.  Unable to move much in bed, monitors keeps him awake, and he’s agitated.  In the middle of the night as his wife sleeps on a nearby cot he calls to her for help.  She’s exhausted from the stress, and is trying to sleep as well, but he keeps waking her up.  He wishes a glass of water to comfort him.  Now, he desires a blanket to be placed over his feet because he’s cold.  Each time his wife hears his cries, she crawls out of bed, to comfort him.

Of such is the essence of love.  It’s helping a broken-heart when in distress.  His wife doesn’t have to be there.  She could be at home, but she cares deeply, and wants to comfort him.  She’ll do almost anything to help him.  She always does this, by being with him through good and bad times.  This is the sort of love Jesus Christ wants us to share with each other.