I hope this 90˚ triangle came out well. I never really liked maths, just knew I had to pass it :D. In my previous piece on Loving me, I was able to talk a little about loving yourself. Now this is another exciting piece on the famous commandments on love.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ Luke10:27
Ring a bell? Yup! Sunday school lessons.
Get your geek glasses on, it’s time for maths class! Please don’t go! Didn’t mean to chase you away with that. Lol.
Hang on as we analyse this love triangle.
Love God
First, you need to love God. This obviously is not love at first sight because you haven’t seen Him-yet. A relationship with God isn’t meant to be lopsided. Nobody likes the unrequited love. Well at least, I don’t! Please note that God is not a genie; He is not just there to make your dreams come true. He longs for a relationship with you, as your Father, Friend, and Lover.
Remember the song ‘I’ll catch a grenade for you?’ Well, He actually caught a grenade for you (ok, maybe not a grenade; but nail piercings on a cross aren’t cool either) Funny part is, He did that when you didn’t even know/love Him. He knew you even before you were conceived. He has kept you this far and has led you to this blog post today. Come on! Do you need a psychic to tell you He is crazy about you?!
Accepting Him as your personal Lord and Savior is the way forward. I really like the word ‘personal’. Maybe because I’m a bit possessive, so saying stuffs like ‘MY OWN Lord and Savior’ rocks my socks. Making him ‘yours’ gives you this sense of belonging, knowing that He loves you and will always be there for you.
So then how do we love Him? By knowing Him for ourselves, not just based on what someone else said about Him. Spend time with His word; seek Him through prayers; quietly listen for His voice; sing and dance for Him. But we all know you can’t just jump and start doing all these stuffs if you haven’t even accepted to ‘go out with Him’. Oh yes! He has asked you out already!
We wouldn’t be able to love when we don’t know Love Himself. Picture it this way, God is like the sun (in this scenario sun=love); so we act as mirrors, finding ourselves in Him and in turn reflecting that ray of love to others.
Love Me
Moving on, at the corner of the angle is ‘Me’. You need to love yourself. Again, you have to fall in love with yourself every day. I hear people say ‘I hate how big my eyes are’ or ‘why did God give me such big nose?’ I have also said stuffs like ‘if only I had that hourglass body ‘ and ‘if only I had her voice’ and so on.
Truth is, some of us don’t love ourselves as we ought to because we don’t know ourselves well enough. A journey to self-discovery and self-love exposes new potentials we never knew we had in us. It opens us to unique creative thought processes that lay dormant; talents untapped. I think an Eat, Pray, Love tour is quite necessary!
Remember you’re like a mirror. You reflect His love. You see yourself as He sees you. Wonderful, beautiful, talented, strong…and more!
Love others
Hmm, now this is the difficult part. At least for me! Of course it’s a lot easier to love people who are sweet, nice, kind and caring. But what of those who are mean? Who constantly try to bring us down with hurtful words and actions? Do we really have to love them to? Hate to disappoint you dear, but yes we do! But you know how we can do this? By reflecting His love. As mirrors, we reflect His love to others. Yes, they may be really, really annoying. They may not be worth our love! But do you really think you’re worth His love? Yet He loves you! So why can’t you extend that love to others? Look at the triangle again, notice how His love flows both to ‘Me’ and ‘Others’? Likewise, we ought to love others as He loves us.
There is a lot to ponder upon and adjustments to be made. Even for me. Sometimes I get stuck at the angle where I only love myself, obsessively looking at myself in the mirror of His love, and failing to reflect that love to others. But hey, we can’t beat ourselves up about it! Now we know what we ought to do and His grace is more than enough to help us do the right thing.
It’s always my desire that you live victoriously!
Lots of love,
© Mfon Etuk, 2015
Dainty M. 
Wonderful…
Starting with that subject called mathematics ; I dey almost wan run comot from class anytime my maths teacher come class cos I no ever like the subject any day. It became very worst when I was told I’m to take a mathematics course while in the university wey I don thank God say maths end for jamb. I almost wan change department then in my 300H level lolzzzzz. but thank God for the enablement.
Lov£ for God, Lov£ for One’s self and the Lov£ for others. someone once said “THE LOV£ OF GOD TAKES US THROUGH LIFE AND MEETS WITH US AT THE OTHER SIDE OF LIVE.” his lov£ is unmeasurable and his Lov£ for us gave birth to Mercy and Grace that has brought us thus far. I also believe that it is impossible for someone to love genuinely if he or she have not come to know the true giver of IT cos HE alone can make it possible because his love has been she abroad in our hearts by his Holy Spirit. Rom.5:5.
Lov£ for ones’ self is v.v.good cos no one can love you more than you love yourself but falling in love with yourself is very difficult. Most times we just verbalize it but we are far from it. One can’t appreciate himself or herself in the darkness, they need come to the light and there is only one light that has appeared to all men.
Lov£ for others . I’ve come to realize that when you need something desperately you give. A man who is in need of lov£ must show lov£ for that dryness to be filled. But, How do I give what I lake and who do I give or share it with? Here is the summary from Matthews account. matt. 25:40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say
to you, as you did it to one of the least of
these my brothers, you did it to me.’ We may have never met them , talked with them , etc with them. however they appear, do to your neighbor what you want them to do unto you.
When it’s all been said and done
All my treasures will mean nothing
Only what I’ve done for love’s reward
Will stand the test of time. Don Moen.
Only in Christ will all this be fulfilled.
Good write up again M. God Bless You More. Amen
LikeLike
Thank you so much for taking the time to break this into bits, shining more light to unclear areas. God bless you too Mike! 🙂
LikeLike
Awesome analogy! I like the “love triangle” metaphor! Very cool!
LikeLike
Thanks Courtney! 😀
LikeLike