Another Love dose.

Love does not envy, it is not boastful and it is not proud.        1 cor 13:14b

There is a popular story among Ghanaians about dating.  A man approaches a woman; the woman looks the man up and down and asks the man, ‘do you honestly think that you and I are on the same level? Do I look like a woman you can date? Please cut your coat according to your size’.

Love is not boastful or proud.

Once upon a time a man approached me and told me that he approached me because of my disability and that he feels he needs to marry someone with a disability.  I thought wow; I felt so deflated as a woman and did not feel grateful at all.  I felt insulted that day not just because he continued to say that a person with disability is safe and there won’t be too much competition, but because God was teaching me to put value on myself . That moment made me shaky,  I wondered if I was not deluding myself.  His attitude nearly destroyed any improvement I had made with valuing myself.

People tend to look at a person’s background, physical appearance and skin colour to mention a few and tag them as not good enough or not up to standard or safe.  But love says, don’t be boastful. Being boastful simply means putting yourself or circumstance above everyone else.  Thinking of yourself more highly than you ought to.  In the eyes of love there is equality, rich or poor, intelligent or stupid, fat or slim, love knows no partiality .  Bible says that in all things let’s consider ourselves less than others.  When you remember that everything you have is by grace and from God, you will not be boastful. You will treasure others and treat them like kings and queens. Remember those you meet going up are the same people you will meet coming down.

Love is not proud.  Love does not lord it over others.  It does not say ‘my way or the highway; either way, am boss, listen to me’.   Pride does not serve; pride does not consider others, pride does not lean on others or ask for help.  Pride stands alone.  When you love, you want to serve, you want to share, you want to give more of yourself to others, give them your best and do not demand, love asks and waits in patience for it. It does not push and force.  Loves focuses on others and never on herself.

Love is not envious of anybody or what they have.  Love does not compare and live trying to be better than others.   It has no need to prove itself to others. Love instead looks for the good in others and praises it. And where others are lacking, love seeks to better them.

Love is interested in the good of others and not itself. It seeks ways to express itself and goes beyond what is expected.

Love puts value on others and teaches others to do same. In loving let us remember to not be so full of ourselves that we forgot that love shares with others and if you want others to value you, you must not be boastful or proud or envious but you should first give value and others will give you same.

Written by Aba Dadson

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