Love is...

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  8 Love never fails.  (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)

1 Corinthians 13 is a definition of love--God's perfect, pure love.  I'm a teacher.  When I assign my students vocabulary words, I often have them do it in a Frayer Model-style.  This is a model to help students fully understand a concept by identifying a word's definition, its characteristics, its examples, and its non-examples.  Basically, it helps to understand what something is by also understanding what it isn't. Here is what the model looks like for the word "turtle":

1 Corinthians 13, although not technically a Frayer Model in design, uses the same characteristics to help us understand the concept of love.  It describes love, giving examples, as well as non-examples.

Love is...

Love does not...

Love always...

Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, knew that describing what love wasn't would help them understand what love was.  And what it wasn't was more like the love this world has to offer.  Paul contrasts God's perfect love to the imperfect love that we usually see and experience in this world.  The only time we can experience this perfect love is when God is in the picture. This love is God's character; and only when we allow His character to reign in our hearts can we love with this God-character love described in these verses.  

Art Talk:

For this page, I used some patterned papers that a dear, sweet friend sent to me.  I stamped the letters L-O-V-E with the In Stitches Alpha stamp set and cut them out.  Then I stamped and fussy cut a series of hearts onto the papers using this month's Stamp-of-the-Month Filigree Hearts. I printed out the verses 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 onto card stock, cut out each phrase, and then pasted a phrase onto each of the little cut-out hearts.  I made a tag that says LOVE, and then used a vellum envelope to store the little hearts. I created a background on the Bible page with some Shimmerz Inklingz (A Rose by Any Other Name), some stamping and splattering.  I then embossed a heart and the cursive "love" (using the His Love set) onto the front of the vellum envelope.  I placed a scrap of hymn paper inside it, as well as all the little hearts.  I added a tag to the top of the page with some washi, and then adhered the large LOVE tag to the page.  

These little hearts can be removed from or viewed through the vellum envelope.

Thanks for joining me today.  I pray that you'll be able to experience God's true, perfect love today.  

Blessings--

Julie

FILIGREE HEARTS