Love is...

I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about 1 Corinthians 13.  Most people, even non-Christians or church goers have heard the words and think it's "a nice sentiment."  And when we hear sermons or teachings on it, it is used to talk about love with significant others, children, family, even friends and often about God's love for us.  But the thought that came to me in the middle of the night was, " Do we look at this verse in comparison with our love for Him?  For ourselves?"  Haven't we been instructed by Jesus to love our neighbors as ourselves?  (although in my case I've always thought His admonition was commutative and feel Him saying, "Do your show yourself the amount of love you show your neighbor?"  That's another entry altogether!)  This is something I'm going to pray and blog about over the next few days.  Here are the verses I'll be praying upon and considering what He's laid on my heart:

And yet I will show you the most excellent way.
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love 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.
Love never fails.  But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophecy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.  When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.  When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.  For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.  Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love.