all about love

I've been seeking in my morning quiet time for a word from God about this upcoming school year.  Basically, I've been asking Him how I should approach it - this mission field He has given me.  I think I've gotten an answer...

Love.

Mark 12:38 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
²⁹ “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.^{[e] 30} Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’^{[f] 31} The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^[g] There is no commandment greater than these.”

This is not easy.  Last year and the year before that, it got harder.  That is it got harder to love my neighbor (colleague) as myself.  I'm pretty good, I think, at loving the unlovely students that come my way, but my colleagues?  Now, that's a challenge.

It's hard to love someone who doesn't respect you.  However, I think I've been hearing Jesus say to me these past few days that I need to try harder at this.

Luke 6:32 "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?"

Luke 6:33 "If you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you?" 

Each of the above bible verses is followed with "even sinners do can do that..."

I'm supposed to be different. I'm His child - a Christian.  I'm called to be different.  And although I won't execute this perfectly, I have to try to love unselfishly. 

Yesterday, when I was asking God for some kind of confirmation that this is the message I'm supposed to be receiving right now as I seek His will for the new school year, the song "All About Love" by Steven Curtis Chapman popped up on my Rhapsody app that I was listening to.  It made me pause; it made me think about what God had said to me that morning in my quiet time.  I really felt like it was Him reaching out to me.  A confirmation since I don't believe in coincidences. 

So ya'll, it's gonna be all about love (the verb) this school year.  Loving my students.  Loving my colleagues.

I think this could spill over into the rest of my life too.  I need to teach Beth and Hannah that love is a verb.  It's something you do and not just feel.  I need to be more loving toward my family.  Really - you might not guess this about me - but I can be pretty selfish. 

So, here it is - it's "All About Love"