{"id":19475,"date":"2024-01-27T05:10:20","date_gmt":"2024-01-27T11:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=19475"},"modified":"2024-01-27T05:10:22","modified_gmt":"2024-01-27T11:10:22","slug":"the-sweet-payoff-of-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=19475","title":{"rendered":"The Sweet Payoff of Love"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Wednesday night, at our church\u2019s family dinner (a weekly blessing), we sat across from the cutest couple who married in December. He is 90 years old; she is 86. They are just recently out and about because three days before they married, she fell, broke her nose and required stitches from her nose to her lip. He fell a couple of days later. They are both going regularly for physical therapy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While they were telling us their story, they kept looking into each other\u2019s eyes and putting their heads on each other\u2019s shoulder. They are obviously so much in love. So precious!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almost married six months now, I realize we must keep working at the cuteness. As time goes on, we may start to take others for granted. Goodness! I don\u2019t want that. I desire for this sweet love affair to go on from here to eternity!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I get it. Showing love and grace must be an ongoing practice. It\u2019s easy to show grace once. But over time, little annoyances start to add up, our patience starts to falter, and it\u2019s easier to respond to our loved ones less affectionately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To experience a love that lasts, it takes a bushel load of mercy. No relationship — marriage or otherwise — is going to last without forgiveness, acceptance, patience, and a whole lotta grace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We get loads of opportunities each day to extend grace to the people we love. Those are the ones who may have flaws and faults that irritate us. Truth is the longer we love somebody, the more we know their flaws. We can choose to either be critical or gracious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can be picky, or we can be kind. We can be perfectionists, or we can show mercy. Proverbs 17:9 says, \u201cLove prospers when a fault is forgiven, but dwelling on it separates close friends.\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We must never hold on to anger\u2026even for a little bit. The Bible says in Colossians 3:13, \u201cMake allowance for each other\u2019s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.\u201d We can choose to hold on to a hurt, or we can choose forgiveness. Only one option is healthy, and only one will give us freedom to move forward in love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Showing grace is a sure way to heal a hurt. Grace doesn’t fight back or harbor a hurt or must have the last word. We don\u2019t have to rely on our own strength. We can trust that as a follower of Jesus, we have the Holy Spirit working in us to help us choose the things God loves: mercy, compassion, and grace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sweet love is even sweeter when forgiveness heals a relationship. It isn\u2019t always a big disagreement. Even the little misunderstanding or the lack of trust or slipping with a simple word of anger can spoil a moment. That\u2019s why \u201clove\u201d \u2013 the God kind of love should always be our goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goodness! I\u2019m already writing a Valentine\u2019s message \u2013 the one that speaks to us loud and clear. I Corinthians 13:4-7 says: \u201cLove is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can be picky, or we can be kind. We can be perfectionists, or we can show mercy. Proverbs 17:9 says, \u201cLove prospers when a fault is forgiven, but dwelling on it separates close friends.\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We must never hold on to anger\u2026even for a little bit. The Bible says in Colossians 3:13, \u201cMake allowance for each other\u2019s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.\u201d We can choose to hold on to a hurt, or we can choose forgiveness. Only one option is healthy, and only one will give us freedom to move forward in love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Showing grace is a sure way to heal a hurt. Grace doesn’t fight back or harbor a hurt or must have the last word. We don\u2019t have to rely on our own strength. We can trust that as a follower of Jesus, we have the Holy Spirit working in us to help us choose the things God loves: mercy, compassion, and grace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sweet love is even sweeter when forgiveness heals a relationship. It isn\u2019t always a big relationship disagreement. Even the little things of misunderstanding or the lack of trust or slipping with a simple word of anger can spoil a moment. That\u2019s why \u201clove\u201d \u2013 the God kind of love should always be our goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goodness! I\u2019m already writing a Valentine\u2019s message \u2013 the one that speaks to us loud and clear. I Corinthians 13:4-7 says: \u201cLove is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wednesday night, at our church\u2019s family dinner (a weekly blessing), we sat across from the cutest couple who married in December. He is 90 years old; she is 86. They are just recently out and about because three days before they married, she fell, broke her nose and required stitches from her nose to her…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[15034,1210,1769,28962,28959,1382,323,40,2043,8853,4620,28956,28963,6457,28957,4520,28960,28961,28958,20740,22744],"class_list":["post-19475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-acceptance","tag-blog","tag-christian","tag-colossians-313","tag-extend-grace","tag-forgiveness","tag-grace","tag-inspiration","tag-kind","tag-love-affair","tag-love-is-patient","tag-love-payoff","tag-make-allowance-for-faults","tag-marriage","tag-older-couple","tag-patience","tag-perfectionists","tag-proverbs-179","tag-show-love-and-grace","tag-show-mercy","tag-valentines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19475"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19487,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19475\/revisions\/19487"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}