Life has many opportunities to practice love.  It may sound like an easy assignment but as this poem shows we  all fall short of perfection.  I am so thankful our Lord forgives and helps us to do as He did, to forgive and to love the unlovely.

Learning Love’s Lessons

The largest lesson a man must learn,
That will brings great results until God returns,
Is the appeal of God above;
To live in an attitude of love.
It is simple many may say;
It is not a hard word to obey.
But I tell you every person can improve in this.
The Holy Spirit sees all and is ready to assist.
This word is not to condemn, no indeed.
It is to lift up and to plant kingdom seeds.
To replace the seed of bitterness of the hurt hard to touch,
The anger-walls within you have built up,
The niggling irritation at a glimpse of someone,
The memory that rises up at the remembrance of something done,
Words that taunt you, that fill the heart with tears,
The path of regret you have traveled on for many years,
The neighbor you cannot imagine as a friend,
The unwanted individual who tries to your life enter in,
The loud, obnoxious, bore who rubs you wrong
The inner jealousy that you know does not belong.
The wounds of a love rejected,
All this and more is by your God detected.
Practicing love teaches to forgive, and will for others pray.
Love admits when you fail and recommits to obey.
Love turns on the light and steps under God’s mercy and grace,
And will ask for His help on each trial you face.
Love sees the truth and in repentance weeps in shame;
Expecting, their loving God to breaks life’s unloving chains.

Prayer
Father please forgive me for I find I have failed love’s test in so many ways.  I choose to learn how to successfully forgive others.