psalm 1 says to dwell on love

I think that if I fill my mind with thinking about love I will be successful. No, it isn't too simple of a concept, nor is it too far-fetched. Actually, I get the idea from Psalm 1, where the Lord's Spirit, through David, says (in sum) that the one who thinks on his law will prosper in all he does. And he says it in a poetic and lovely way. There remains a connection one has to make to get to the conclusion that it is love we might dwell on because the psalm says that the object of one's meditation need be the law of the Lord. Just what is the law of the Lord on which one might meditate in order to be successful? Now, defining this can be a bit ambiguous. But, the realization I have come to, is that if we are thinking about what it means to love, according to the Lord, that is thinking about His law. I have come to this because of what the Lord Jesus says, "do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the law (and the prophets.)" And further because he says that the greatest commandment in the law is to love the Lord with all one's heart, soul, and mind, and the second is to love one's neighbor as oneself. Since, such sweeping claims regarding the content of the law assure me that thinking on love is good for thinking on the law.

His law is love

Recently I was brought to change my attitude towards a situation by the lines to "O Holy Night."

Truly He taught us to love one another;

His law is love and His gospel is peace.

Particularly, the part about "His law is love" really challenged me. As I realized that the way of God, the way of love, being the most excellent way, is different than what my perspective had been, I wanted to be like Him.

different gifts facilitate love

I have just been looking at 1 Corinthians 12 and 13, and here Paul, is speaking about interactions between people in the body of Christ. First he talks a lot about the different gifts of the body members, and he says that "God has so composed the body...that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another." And soon after that Paul says "And I will show you a still more excellent way." He then goes on to give the poetic 1 Corinthians 13 essay on love. I find interesting that even the gifts are distributed in such a way that people might love each other, pointing to love as the ultimate desire of God for our relationships.

what i'm learning about the meaning of judgment

I want to share that I am learning about the judgment of people that Jesus calls us not to do in Matthew 7:1 "Judge not, that you be not judged." I have never before thought that this is something I do/have done. However, now that I'm learning more about what it means, I know that I have judged too much. Tim helped me to see this when he shared from the book Divine Conspiracy about how its author, Dallas Willard, explains judging. What I gathered from what Tim told me is that the wrong of judging is to categorize a person as someone who is "different."

This rings true to me, as I have definitely in my mind set aside some people as being "different." I have done that especially with people who I feel have sinned against me/hurt me, and then we haven't been able to understand each other and come to peace and forgiveness about that hurt. Then, I have gone and considered that person as "different." Instead I should remember that though he or she has hurt me, so have I hurt people, and in that equality we are both in need of mercy. I shouldn't count that person as someone from whom I can no longer learn or by whom I no longer seek to love and be loved.

I feel that this is only the tip of the iceberg for me in uprooting my tendency to judge.