When Karen emailed us about this challenge, I was ecstatic. "Love" (as a verb) is my word for the year and 1 Corinthians 13 is the Scripture I chose to go along with my word.
In college, I had to memorize 1 Corinthians 13 for my sorority initiation (in the King James version). At the time, I was far from saved and I memorized it because it was the foundation of our sorority. I never really thought about what it meant, especially not in relation to Christ and Christians, but I always loved the verse. In fact, I even have a pansy (my sorority flower) with the words "faith, hope, and love" around it tattooed on my back (see above... "far from saved"). As I have grown in my faith, God has opened my eyes to the true message and power in this short chapter. It is no longer about sisterhood in the sorority sense, but about sisterhood in Christ--knowing His love for me and returning His love to Him and the people of the world.
As I begin to memorize the verse in the NIV, I am eager to see how God speaks to me now that I am viewing the verses from a different perspective (a new Christian, a wife, etc.). I know there is so much for us all in the verse and I think it will be great to share our thoughts and lessons with one another.
Ashlee, I was thinking about what you said that your word for the year is a verb and not a noun. It's amazing how a just slight change can make such a difference when we think about LOVE. A prayer that I pray for myself and my family everyday is that we would Love God with ALL of our hearts and ALL of our mind and strength and ALL of our soul, since this is what Jesus commanded us to do I think if I focus on this I am in the center of His will for me and everything else falls into place. In the end what will really matter is HOW we loved God and HOW we loved others.
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