1 Corinthians 13

I was just looking back through the Stranger Days: Brooklyn Bridge book (which I have yet to scan and self publish on Lulu).  I finally realized that what Yvette wrote was 1 Corinthians 13.  I had looked at it before, but I think I thought that the 13 was a B or something, and didn't put it together that it was a Bible reference until now.  It's a great reference, one of the most referenced passages of all time maybe.  There's a reason for that, and it never gets old, and we always need a reminder.  Without further ado, here it is.  

First Corinthians Thirteen

"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 are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy 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."

Now, don't stop there!  I encourage to continue reading the rest of both Corinthians books, and to keep going and read the whole Bible.  You won't be able to fully understand this verse, much less actually put into practice what it says, unless you do that.  And what reading the rest of the Bible will do is hopefully bring you to your knees, and the recognition that the only one who can help you, cause you to be able to be patient, kind, honoring, selfless, forgiving, truthful, protecting, trusting, hoping, persevering, unfailing in your love, is Jesus Christ.  But you don't even have to read the whole Bible first for that to happen.  You can bow before Him now, ask him to take residence in your heart, confess with your mouth that He is Lord, and you can begin learning this very moment about the "most excellent way."