Our Daily Bread Designs Forum Bible Verse Thursday Challenge #79 - As I Have Loved You

I give you a new commandment:
love one another;
just as I have loved you,
you also must love one another.
By this love you have for one another,
everyone will know that you are my disciples.’

~John 13:34-35

 

You're probably thinking "yes, yes, the Great Commandment, I've heard it before - like a million times."  You know what?  I think it's something we hear over and over again because it's important!   I also think God keeps putting this one in front of us over and over because we still aren't getting it right.

It sounds so simple, but it's a tough one, isn't it?  Why aren't we getting it right?  I think we look at the first part of this commandment "love one another" and don't get the rest of the way through.  It's not always easy to love the person next to you.  Sometimes people aren't loveable or even likeable!  But once we feel like we can't get that part right we give up.  Let's look at the second part of the command:

"As I have loved you"

What is the one thing that every person wants more than anything?  More than a good job, or money, or any material "stuff"?  We all want to be loved.  It's a basic part of our nature.  And God loves us not because we're perfect.  Which of us is?  No.  He loves us just the way we are.  

We've all heard the addage "you can't truly love someone else until you love yourself."  How do we accomplish that?  Perhaps by emulating the love that the Father offers us... 

When God looks at you, what do you think He sees?  Does he see all your imperfections?  All the things you do wrong?  I believe what He sees in each of us is a wonderful, beautiful being that he created.  His children.  Maybe we have such a hard time with this commandment not because we are incapable of achieving its goal - God most certainly would not give us a command we could not attain!  Maybe the hardest part is opening ourselves up to receive that wonderful gift of His love.  Pure and unconditional.

Before we can achieve the first part of the command (loving one another), we have to learn how to do that.  We have to learn how God loves us, otherwise we cannot love each other the way he loves us - we won't know how!

Take some time this week to open yourself up - truly open yourself to His love and all that it contains.

~~~

Your challenge this week is to use this scripture or another verse to create a project that reminds us of His love.  When uploading your project, please use keyword ODBDBVT79 and then hop over to Our Daily Bread Designs Forum and share it with us! 

 (inside card)

 Supplies for this project
Cardstock:  Bazzill - Coconut Swirl
Decorative Paper:  Graphic 45 - Secret Garden
Stamps:  Our Daily Bread Designs - Love One Another, Eternity
Ink:  Versafine - Onyx Black; Ranger Distress Ink - Tattered Rose, Spiced Marmalade
Accessories: Idea-ology Crinkle Ribbon; Wild Orchid Roses

 

  

Blessings,