Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Love One Another

I have been thinking a lot about God's commandment for us to love one another and about the necessity of having charity and expressing that in our interactions with others. We often talk about how to become like God we need to learn to love like He loves. But this week I have thought specifically about how our having pure love, charity, really blesses those around us, far beyond acts of service that are motivated by that love. This quotation from Anne of Green Gables motivated much of these thoughts.

Marilla is talking to Anne about how she has noticed that Anne did not say her prayers the night before. Anne tells Marilla that she has chosen to not pray because she was taught that God made her hair red on purpose.

Marilla recognizes that Anne is "a girl who knew and cared nothing about God's love, since she had never had it translated to her through the medium of human love."

Later in the book Anne expresses that she feels gratitude for the beauties around her, she shows love for the people in her life and she also expresses how easy it us for her to pray. It doesn't really state it this way, but I think Anne has learned what love feels like and she so she is able to easily express it to others, and to God.

So back to the purpose of charity. I think that one reason that we are commanded to love others is that as others feel our love, they better understand God's love, because our love truly is rooted in God's love for his children. As we show pure love for others, we can help them come to know Jesus Christ and HEavenly Father. 

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