Her email made me angry.

I had done my best the day before to be helpful and take care of her need quickly, but I had goofed. I didn’t get it right and she was quick to let me know. I felt insulted and belittled. Her approach was all wrong, at least in my mind, and I want to fire back.

I rehearsed several different email responses in my head. All were “snarky”. I was searching for just the right words to let her know that I would take care of the problem, but really, she could have been nicer.

WOW. Just, wow.

Is this really who you want to be Jodie? Someone who reads the word, shares the word, and then plum ignores the word. Well, God and I had a good heart to heart. Correcting my mistake, I responded back to the email without irritability.

“Love…is not irritable” 1 Corinthians 13:4-5

All month we are sharing parts of 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 and encouraging others to spend time talking about it with those we love and meet. Today is the day, I remind myself and our readers to not just talk about it…live it out! Honestly, it was never my intention to do otherwise. 1 James 22 reminds us, “…don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.”

Talk is not enough.

Let’s not fool ourselves by believing it’s enough to study God’s word and talk about it. Let’s do what it says.

Let’s respond with patience and kindness.

Let’s reply to emails with love.

Let’s share words of encouragement with love.

Let’s love in the hard.

Let’s give in when we really want our way. (Love …does not demand it’s own way- see yesterdays Facebook post)

Let’s be women who continue to search God’s word for wisdom and guidance and ask Him to work in our hearts and help us live out the love we are learning about.

Jason C. Dukes wrote this,

“There is freedom in the gospel of Jesus Christ, but that freedom does not grant us the ability to do whatever we like. Freedom in Christ drives us back to God’s love and kindness and compels us to extend love and kindness to others. Freedom and love go hand and hand.”

A perfect reminder as we press forward in sharing God’s love to others.

What did I learn today? My first reaction is not where my action needs to come from. My action needs to come from God’s love. What have you learned in His word today?

Faithfully Following~ Jodie