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Happy Birthday America. I hope you have a fabulous 4th of July with friends and family! After you are done celebrating you might have to be patient as you battle traffic after the fireworks displays in your area, so we will continue talking about being patient! When we are patient, we are acknowledging that people and relationships are more important than schedules and our daily planner. Very often interruptions in our day, can be God things. Just recently, I was hurrying into a store to get something that needed to be delivered within the hour, and I ran into 2 separate people who definitely were God appointments. Those are divine moments when you know it was on purpose that you had the opportunity to encourage somebody. They weren’t on my schedule, and I hadn’t put them in my daily planner, but wow, I’m so glad I didn’t pass up those God moments. It did make someone who was waiting on me have to be patient, and thankfully, they were. Maybe you’ve heard this said. Hurry isn’t of the devil, it is the devil! I think you understand the sentiment. When we plan our days so tightly, or when our life is in chaos because we are running around harried all the time, we can be making everyone else have to be patient with us! Let’s be realistic about how much we can accomplish – I just looked through my to do list for today, and I may be preaching to me! Usually when we do practice patience, our productivity increases! Sometimes when productivity decreases in an employee, they may be going through something in their personal life that is overwhelming. Instead of just letting them go, it may be better to practice patience and find out what is going on in their world. One of the most dramatic illustrations of not knowing what is happening in someone’s life was told in this story. A man was on the subway with his 3 children on a Sunday afternoon, and his children were unruly and he was doing nothing about it. A woman sitting near them scolded him for not controlling his children. He gently and patiently commented back to her that they just left the hospital where his wife had passed away. Thud moment. You never know what people are going through. Let’s be the ones who show love and patience to each person we meet.

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Today we are going to talk about the process of developing patience. In our earth suits, our skin, our humanity, we have this tendency to be self centered.(Have you noticed that in other people?) In the process of producing patience in our spiritual walk, self centeredness can become a huge stumbling block. If we continue to be selfish and self centered, those narcissistic tendencies will keep us from adding patience to the characteristics of love we are trying to develop. Selfishness really is the root of all sin, and if we can kick ourselves off the throne of our life, and put God there, we will see amazing changes in our behavior. So moving away from selfishness, and toward selflessness is one of the first steps in the process of becoming a patient person. Another step is beginning to break old habits. How do you typically respond in frustrating situations? Why not do something in the natural that reminds you to be patient. How about counting, covering your mouth, taking a minute to think before you respond, or simply leaving the area for a few minutes. When you have a plan in place of what you will do when the frustrating situation arises, you can act on your plan instead of reacting in your flesh. Give yourself some tools to work with. One great tool that replaced negative habits with a positive one was from a man who said this before he started any conversation that might be sensitive. “I want to state this positively, because I cherish you and I value our relationship”. Those same words could change every conversation you participate in. What are some ways to develop patience?1) By rooting out selfishness, 2)having a plan in place, and 3)then starting sensitive conversations stating things positively, filled with love and respect. Those are some great tools to put into your relationship tool belt.

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This week we will be looking at patience as one of the key characteristics of a loving person. In I Thes 5:14, we are told to be patient with everyone. I know for me, there are some people in my world that make it easy to patient. It is easy to be patient with those who are patient with us! Others are a challenge! No matter who we are dealing with, we believe what the Love Project has the potential to do is to change us from the inside out. Outside in has never worked. When there is a change of heart, then there can be a change of attitude, and then a change of action. The phrase we have coined for the love project is this: We challenge you to develop the habits of a loving person and be made over into the image of Jesus, so the we can begin a love revolution in our world. Love is challenging! But when we make it a habit to act in loving ways, the image of Jesus will be visible in us! How awesome to be made over into His likeness. The revolution happens when we don’t only love in word, but in deed! Love goes from words to action! So when it comes to patience, we can realize that nobody is perfect, and expecting perfection really is unrealistic. Why do we expect perfection? It may be that we are trained to look for imperfections. (We don’t purchase anything with flaws, and to admit that we have flaws, and those around us do too, is hard on our pride.) It may be that we just haven’t determined that patience is now who we are in Christ, and how we act once we have come into relationship with a loving and patient God. But that can change! Let’s let patience have its perfect work in us.

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This summer, we are reviewing The Love Project, a church-wide initiative designed to learn together how to show love better to the community around us and to each other. This 10 week study is a key way for us to connect meaningfully with people around us, and make a lifelong impact in our community! Hi, this is Dorette Schaal with an encouraging word for your day. We are preparing for the one another project as a church body this fall, and this study serves as a great reminder that loving others is the greatest way to live. Together we can make love a way of life, and positively change our world. This week is all about patience. Here is your dailyeword.

This week we will be looking at patience as one of the key characteristics of a loving person. We are using as our text the book, Love as a Way of Life, by Gary Chapman, and I love his definition of patience. He defines it this way, patience is accepting the imperfections of others. Probably one of the biggest examples of where everyone can use more patience is in traffic. Frustration and aggravation happens more in traffic than we can even imagine. Whenever anything stops up the normal flow, people in cars get impatient. So to add to Gary’s definition, I would say, patience is accepting imperfections not just in people, but in all of life. Things don’t go perfectly all the time. Situations don’t turn our perfectly. People don’t respond perfectly, or act perfectly in each endeavor. So we get to choose to walk in love and respond patiently, even in the midst of imperfection in life. If we get impatient with inanimate objects, is it any surprise that we are impatient and act unbecomingly toward people? So how do you rate on the patience scale? Let’s say 1 is the worst and 10 is the best. It may be hard to admit, but many of us, are at the bottom end of the patience scale. If you are one who consistently gets impatient, don’t be disheartened. Everyone is a work in progress, including you! Of the seven areas we are looking at in the LOVE PROJECT, I do think this might be one of the most challenging. It may be because we like instant gratification, and being patient takes patience!. As we study patience this week, I believe that you are becoming more like our creator, who has been more than patient with us all!

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Kindness is the first characteristic of a loving life that we are talking about this week. You be nice to me, and I’ll be nice to you. We are taught in Church to be kind to one another. Be nice! It is easier to be nice to someone if they are being nice to you, but love tells us to be nice either way! So can you begin practicing kindness? I think you can. I know you might think that some people are just kinder than others, that they got some special kind of kindness data input that you didn’t receive, but that’s really not the case. Those who don’t show kindness often need an extra dose of kindness given toward them. You never know what people are going through. If you are around people who think about and care about others, you will definitely have a greater tendency to be kind. But even if you are not, you can start the kindness project, as part of the love project at your house! Kindness brings a smile to your face not only when you receive it, but especially when you give it. I hope you begin looking for ways to show kindness around you. Here are some easy ideas. Give genuine compliments, smile at people, help around the house without being asked, give someone else the last cookie, make an outsider feel like an insider….the list could go on forever! So now it’s your turn. What are you gonna do to show kindness to someone today? When you show your love to others, it does come back to you. So go and sow some seeds of kindness, an see what comes back in return.

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Kindness is the first characteristic of a loving life that we are studying this week. I hope you are beginning to think proactively about being kind all the time. To make it really practical, here are some simple ideas, or ways for you to start showing kindness to those around you!
Take every opportunity to make smile at people
Remember the elderly, the mentally or physically challenged have additional hurdles in life….try to help make life easier for them through kindness
Let others in line ahead of you
Be kind in traffic!
Give compliments!
Hold the door for others
Pay for someone’s meal or drink in the coffee line or fast food restaurant
Tip well
Call, text or email people in your world who might need encouragement
Never underestimate how much impact kind words can have on someone’s life.
Always be looking for ways to affirm and value those around you. It is all too easy to do the opposite. We look for things that are negative naturally. We have to train ourselves to look for the positive and to use our words to say the kind thing instead of what might have come to mind initially. There is the power of life and death in what we speak, and kind words in any situation, have the power to change situations for the better.

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Kindness is the first characteristic of a loving life that we are studying this week. Pay it forward was a popular movie several years back that had a great message. When you receive a kindness from someone, pass it on to someone else. Instead of paying you back, you’re paying it forward. Kindness generates kindness. Have you noticed how true that it? When you make a choice to show kindness, even if it is not reciprocated, it make some sort of impact. Sometimes it is as dramatic as shock and disbelief, but often it is just thankfulness. People are genuinely thankful when a kindness is shown to them. If you look back in your own life, I wouldn’t be surprised if somewhere in your past you have a vivid memory of someone being kind to you. My dad received a Steinway Grand Piano in an inheritance of someone he had been kind to. It wasn’t out of the ordinary for my dad, in fact, he was one of the kindest men I’ve ever known. He was always thinking about the underdog, and he was an encourager by nature. The awesome inheritance came to my dad because he would take time to show kindness to a mentally disabled young man, and his mom was so grateful. She payed it forward. Is there some way you can do the same this week? Has someone helped you, or given you something, or made an impact on your life through kindness? Find a way to pay it forward!

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Kindness is the first characteristic of a loving life that we are studying this week. Here is a good question to consider. How different would your relationships be if kindness was a quality of love that was practiced daily? I bet they would all improve! Bad Habits are the competitor to kindness. Bad habits can be things that we don’t do, like: leaving things out and not putting things away. What we say when we don’t take care of our own things is that we don’t care if we make more work for others. Often it is just laziness, and sometimes haste that keep us from being more thorough, but it makes things harder for someone else. Just consider the amount of work it takes someone at a restaurant to pick up what you may have dropped on the floor, to scoot your chair in, to clean the table up. We think that since that is what they do for a job, we can leave a mess for them. That isn’t the kindest thing to do. We do need to consider kindness! Think about that at home too. When it comes to the simple things, show kindness by having good habits! Make it a good habit to take care of your own things. Do a little extra. Offer to help out. Good things happen when you show kindness….you usually get kindness in return.

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Kindness is the first characteristic of a loving life that we are studying this week. When we look at all the characteristics of love, kindness rates high on the list. One great way to show kindness is through words. We can speak hope filled, positive, truthful and affirming words to love through kindness. Encouraging Words are my passion! How can your words bring hope? Sometimes just the simple words, it will all be ok, can bring a great measure of hope to someone who is in desperate circumstances. Kind words should be positive and uplifting. We know God turns negative situations around all the time. Our words can begin that process in someone’s life. Kind words are truthful. We are told in the Bible to speak the truth in love. It can be challenging, but we can speak truth in love. Kind words are affirming. I’m always encouraged and affirmed by words that uplift. We do need to put a guard on our mouth, we do need to listen to what we say and how we say it, and we do need to replace negative words with positive words. Being kind is all about seeing value and worth in each person. Kindness can be developed! You can break negative patterns and make changes just by being observant and taking time to think about what we say before it is said. So remember to speak those hope filled, positive, truthful and affirming words of kindness

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Kindness is the first characteristic of a loving life that we are studying this week. Kindness really is a great way to show God’s love to our world. It has great potential to change us from the inside as we begin to think about other’s care and comfort more than we do our own. Sometimes the biggest change we see is a change of attitude, and that is a great place to start. During this love project, we are hoping to make it more obvious to the world around us that we are believers. Believer’s should be known specifically for one thing, and that is love. So as we talk about kindness this week, I see it as beginning to put love in action. We are not hearers only, we are doers of the Word! Love is an action, and definitely when we show kindness we are acting in a loving way. We live in a world with lots of injustice. We get to be the ones who start to turn the tide. Let’s not be the one who walks past an opportunity to show kindness. Begin right where you are, and start being observant to the world around you. Open up your eyes, and in the normal processes of life, you can begin demonstrating kindness by the little kind things you do, all the time. Your life will have a whole different feel when you begin to notice or recognize someone else’s needs. We will learn that kindness isn’t only a response to others being kind to us, but us proactively being kind to others. In fact, a great definition
of kindness from Gary Chapman’s book Love as a way of life is this: kindness is discovering the joy of helping others and the joy of meeting someone else’s need before your own, simply for the sake of relationship. Will kindness have an impact on your relationship? You bet. Why not start showing kindness today?

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