Two days in a row???

This is a new record! Two blogs in two days!! Pam - pick your jaw up off the floor! :-)

Tonight, I went to Bible Study at my church, where we are doing a 4-week video session of "Loving Well" by Beth Moore. The point of the study is to understand God's love for us, and how that leads to us loving others, which is God's commandment to us. The first week's session established 4 categories of people that we are called by God to love....and if you get right down to it - everyone you know can be placed in these 4 categories:

1 - Joy....These are the people who are a JOY to love! Now of course, this doesn't mean you never get frustrated at these people, or annoyed or even down right mad at them because we are not God and our love is not Perfect Love - as His is. Your "Joy" people are easy to love and you love being around them.

2 - Testy....These people are those that you just dread. You deal with them, but you don't look forward to it. They are under your skin before you even start a conversation with them! They try every ounce of you! You just can't imagine HOW you are supposed to love these people?!

3 - Hate....This person or these people are those that you can admit that you truly hate, or have hated, even though you know it is just so wrong to hate them. They have wronged you so terribly or have done something so despicable in your life that you have no idea how to forgive them, let alone, how to love them.

4 - Far...These are the people that you don't know at all or hardly know. God also calls us to love strangers, provide for them, give to them, be kind to them, LOVE them. LOOK for opportunities to love strangers.

I thought these 4 categories were quite fitting, and it really got me to thinking about who I have in each category. God doesn't just tell us to love the JOYs in our life - even though that is where we tend to concentrate the most time, effort & energy in loving.

My commitment during this study is to gain a deeper understanding of God's love for me, which will then cause me to love myself better, and will therefore allow me to love others & show God's love through my actions.

But between me & you...I had some "testy" encounters today.....God is still working! Let's just put it this way...I still have some work to do!