Constructive Love

Today I was reading the Phillips translation of 1 Corinthians 13:4, and I love it!

"This love of which I speak is slow to lose patience - it looks for a way of being constructive. It is not possessive: it is neither anxious to impress nor does it cherish inflated ideas of its own importance."

The "constructive" part really got me thinking... I looked up the word "constructive" in the dictionary, and this is the definition I read:

1. Constructing or tending to construct; helping to improve; promoting further development or advancement

So... part of what that verse is saying is that love looks for a way to improve, or advance the loved one's life. It kind of sounds like a quote I heard once, "True success is found when you help others succeed." Synonyms I found for the word "constructive" include helpful, effective, positive, practical, productive, useful, and valuable.

I worry about loving people as much as God wants me to... what if they don't give me credit? What if I love them, and then they leave? What if I love them, and they keep treating me so terribly? What if I love them, and it makes NO difference in MY life? There is one word to sum up these thoughts: SELFISHNESS! (Sefishness= the opposite of love, in my opinion) I'm kind of embarrassed to admit that I have these thoughts, but I would be lying if I said that I don't. If I'm only loving people to make sure that it makes my life better, then I'm not really loving them, am I? I'm not working to try and make someone else's life better if this is the case, only my own life.

My goal for, well, forever is to make loving others a habit of mine. These are questions I am going to try and ask myself daily for the next month, and hopefully it will become something I do constantly as a habit in the process.

-To whom, and how can I show God's love today?
-To whom, and how can I encourage someone today?
-Who can I build up today, and how?
-How can I improve someone else's life today? (Someone ELSE'S life- not your own, Sprite!)
-How can I bless someone else today?

"Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile." -Mother Teresa