3 day plan

Loving When It’s Hard - Part 1

Day 1 of 3

NIV

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Loving When it’s Hard in Marriage

Coincidentally, our wedding anniversary is in Marriage Week. Last year we celebrated 40 years of marriage. ‘Congratulations!’ everyone said. ‘You two are an inspiration.’ If they only knew! Why has our partnership not only survived, but thrived? A million small decisions, but mainly it’s about ‘always’ and ‘never.’

In a disagreement never say, ‘You never’ or, ‘You always’. Those words are poison in that context.

But they can be powerful if used differently. What if we were to say (and live out), ‘Because I love you, I will never give up, I will never lose faith, I will always be hopeful and my love for you will always endure through every circumstance.’

Read through 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. It was possibly read at your wedding. Is this true for you, always?

Prayer
LORD, help me to apply those wonderful ‘love’ verses to my marriage.

The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by Permission of Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide.

Days

1
2
3

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

1If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by Permission of Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide.