loving well.

I've been thinking and praying a lot about how to love well. I was at Wheaton College a few weeks ago and was able to hear Laura Winner speak in their chapel service. She spoke about 1 Cor. 13, and what it means to truly love another person. She talked about her relationships in college and how, looking back, she realizes a lot of them were one-sided, or just plain selfish. She loved her friends and those around her for the people that she wanted them to be, and for what they could do for her, not for who they actually were. She said the only way we can possibly love anyone truly is through God. All of our relationships should be 3- sided...i.e. me--God--the other person. Her talk was simple but it hit me hard. 

A verse that I have tried to live by since high school is this, 

"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity."

Colossians 3: 12-14. 

I think that love includes all of these things, especially humility. This is something I really need to remember and give to God in prayer....every single day.