Easier Said Than Done

It's been a few weeks, but I'm back with a Scripture Sunday post.

Texts from this morning:
Old Testament: Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18
Epistle: 1 Thessalonians 2:1-13
Gospel: Matthew 22:34-46

One overlapping theme: LOVE.

I wrote down some thoughts during the sermon, so I'm going to share those with you here.  (Any thoughts appreciated!)

-We miss the point of "Love thy neighbor as thyself." For many, it's just the language of that command and no meaning or action behind it. It's a powerful call, and many like to sit in church and say, "Oh, that's all nice and good, but it's not for me."

-You cannot separate your love of God with love for your neighbor. The way we treat our neighbor is the way we treat God. We find God in our neighbor.

-Love is being around people you really don't want to be around.

-We are called to instill a responsibility in one another- to love them. But some of us go about doing it wrong- holding resentments and grudges. When we put that kind of pressure on people, we aren't loving and serving.

-This is like Christianity 101- it's the very basic thing we're called to do as brothers and sisters in Christ!

-It is always to your advantage to love like God.

-This means stepping beyond the typical love boundary line- This is Jesus saying, "Love like me!" It's more than a greeting card or a "Hi" on the sidewalk. Jesus always steps beyond love's boundary line- he is always in action!

-It's not easy and it's not always pleasant- but the joy and the rewards of showing love are so worth the amount of work or uneasy feelings we may have to endure!

This verse is sometimes easier said than done- but it's what God calls us to do! We have ONE life here on earth- now, why waste it NOT loving thy neighbor as thyself?!

Blessings (This weekend was AWESOME!)

-Started off with me meeting my co-op at her house. We met to talk about our plans for the next 2 weeks and she informed me that Barnes and Noble was having an educator appreciation day. So I grabbed some of my teacher friends and we went- got a sack full of stuff and I bought some books, so it was well worth the trip there!

-Yesterday, a group of us went to a pumpkin patch. Upon arrival, in this small little town of 220, there was this treasure of an amazing pumpkin patch. I was in awe- some of the things we saw at the patch- petting zoo; corn maze; candyland; mini 3-D and haunted houses, hayrack ride, and then of course digging through the pumpkin patch! It was a ton of fun, a great, relaxing autumn afternoon to relax in God's amazing autumn creations! (A few pictures- some I slightly edited- are at the end of this post!)

-That night, I went with one of my best buddies and we went to a new place in town, Sam and Louie's for pizza. It was a TON of fun and the pizza- we had BBQ chicken pizza- it was amazing!

-Then, we went to the city to see a late movie, The Thing. It was a "scary" movie, but I didn't think it was too bad, but I did jump a couple of times!

-Even though we got back and I didn't get to bed til about 1:30, I had to be up and on the road by 6:30 to play for church, so I didn't get much sleep last night, but the memories made are awesome and I think it was definitely worth it!

-I played for church, it went well, 5 good hymns, no sung liturgy- that's my kind of service! Afterwards, we had Bible Class, and the women are going to bring homemade cinnamon rolls for me the next time I play!

-I had amazing conversation with the prof. I traveled with! He asked me about how several things were going from last year, and he said something very reassuring: "It's not your fault. It's theirs. You didn't do anything wrong. THEY did." It just made me feel better about so many things, and he was a bit disappointed that things hadn't changed since last Spring.

-Tomorrow my part-time teaching at the preschool begins! I'm very excited!