The Greatest Weapon: Love

Quick update before I get to the point of my blog title:

October has just flown by!  This could be because we have had several weeks in a row that have not lasted five whole school days.  Either way, this has probably been the shortest month on record.  During this time I ran another 5K.  This one was for Breast Cancer, and I was able to run it in its entirety.  I have set a new goal to run at least 50k by Christmas, not at one time, but as a whole.  That is about 30 miles.  I know it might seem easy for some, but I was not even able to run 1 mile less than a year ago.  So it is kind of a big deal.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to play volleyball with my neighbors.  So far, it has been the most exposure I have had to the Dutch language.  I learned the words for "out" and "line" enough so I could argue my point in English or Dutch.  One additional thing that I learned was that my name does not really work with Dutch phonetics, or at least with Surinamers.  When they asked for my name, I told them Anne.  After numerous failed attempts to correctly say the first vowel sound, (Ian), they asked me if I had any other names.  I gave them my last name, and they were able to pronounce that without a problem, which is funny because if you say my last name, you are essentially greeting me. Anyways, I hope to play more volleyball with them in the future!

Our school is going through the process for accreditation.  We are in the final steps and are quickly preparing for the arrival of the committee to observe us.  This whole experience has taught me just how much additional work teachers need to do for their classroom to make everything run smoothly.  Keep praying that all the work will be able to get done!

Now on to the title.
During my time with God I have spent time reflecting on relationships and how to deal with conflict.  There are many relationships in life that we have.  We have relationships with students, with coworkers, with friends, with family, and with neighbors.  Sometimes these relationships go through a rough patch.  That is life, we are all human, and we are all sinners. 

One of the greatest gifts and weapons that we have to combat sin and doubt is love.  Think about it; we are going to heaven because of love.  It was the greatest weapon God could use to save us.  1 Corinthians 13 stresses love's importance even more by stating that without love, great physical amounts of power and abilities are absolutely nothing. 

Now I am not trying to go all hippie with this love and peace talk, but I think I often just forget that this is what I should be fighting sin with.  The Bible says to love your enemies, turn the other cheek, and do not judge.  I struggle with these three things very much.  It is human instinct and our sinful nature to try and fight back and hurt someone who has hurt us.  In honesty, it is one of the places my mind goes.  "You caused me pain?  Well now I am going to cause you pain!"

That is wrong!  If Jesus had thought that way, he would have reigned down a bunch of hurt on everyone who had beaten him and tried to kill him.  Instead, he chose to love his enemies and die for them.  If we could have a Christ-like attitude toward others, maybe we wouldn't have so much disagreement. 1 Thessalonians states that we should "Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always be kind to each other and to everyone else.  Be joyful always, and pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances."

This has been my motto for the past week.  In fact, I made it my class memory verse.  I love all my relationships.  It is an actual physical effort sometimes to get past conflict or wrongs that have been inflicted on me, but God gave me love to fight sin.   I am glad for that gift, and for that weapon.  If anyone reads this, I hope that you will try and fight sin with love this week.  To me, that will show your true strength.  Pray continually to God.  God is good!