her. "Well," says somebody, "that could never be said
of our home, for no one could love one another more than my husband
and I love each other!" But wait a minute! It depends on what you
mean by love. Love is not just a sentimental feeling, nor even strong
passion. The famous passage in 1 Corinthians 13 tells us what real
love is, and if we test ourselves by it, we may find that after all
we are hardly loving one another at all, and our behaviour is all in
the opposite direction--and the opposite of love is hate! Let us look
at some of the things that that passage tells us about love.

"Love is long suffering (patient) and is kind."

"Love vaunteth not itself (does not boast) is not puffed up (is not
conceited)."

"Love does not behave itself unseemly (is not rude) seeketh not her
own (is not selfish), is not easily provoked (does not get
irritated), thinketh no evil (does not entertain unkind thoughts of
another)."

How do we stand up to those tests in our homes? So often we act in
the very opposite way.

We are often impatient with one another and even unkind in the way we
answer back or react.

How much envy, too, there can be in a home. A husband and wife can
envy the other their gifts, even their spiritual progress. Parents
may be envious of their children, and how often is there not bitter
envy between brothers and sisters.

Also "not behaving unseemly," that is, courtesy, what about that?
Courtesy is just love in little things, but it is in the little
things that we trip up. We think we can "let up" at home.

How "puffed up," that is, conceited, we so often are! Conceit comes
out in all sorts of ways. We think we know best, we want our way and
we nag or boss the other one; and nagging or bossing leads on to the
tendency to despise the other one. Our very attitude of superiority
sets us up above them. Then, when at the bottom of our hearts we
despise someone, we blame them for everything--and yet we think we
love.

Then what about "seeking not our own," that is, not being selfish?
Many times a day we put our wishes and interests before those of the
other one.

How "easily provoked" we are! How quick to be irritated by something
in the other. How often we allow the unkind thought, the resentful
feeling over something the other has done or left undone! Yet we
profess there are no failures in love in our homes. These things
happen every day and we think nothing of them. They are all of them
the opposi