Author: Beth Morrison

One-minute read.

Sacrifice expresses love, which requires community.  If we don’t have someone to love, we do not need to sacrifice.  Jesus came to Earth in human form as an act of love for His Father’s creation.  The Almighty gave us free will, the choice to accept His presence in our lives or reject it.  Without choice, we can’t love.  Christ chose to become one of us so that He could teach us unconditional love, setting an example that led to the cross and the ultimate sacrifice: laying down His life for ours.

At the time of this writing, a horrific flash flooding disaster in Texas fills the headlines.  Rapidly rising waters in the middle of the night caused destruction along the Guadalupe River as a 20 ft wall of water flowed downstream on the Fourth of July.  Amidst the tragic loss of life, stories of heroism began to surface as people sacrificed their lives to save the lives of others.  Love motivates us to action, and no greater love occurs than when someone lays down their life for another.

Daily life typically doesn’t require the ultimate sacrifice that people made in Texas.  But to love others well, we must learn to sacrifice our needs for theirs.  Finding ways to serve our neighbors helps us fulfill the Great Commandment and leaves the world in a better state than we found it.  Love God and others sacrificially and experience the joy that comes from other-centered living.

Journal Question:

How has someone sacrificially loved you?

Random Act of Kindness:

How can you sacrificially love someone today?

One-minute read.

Driving down the road last week, a car cut in front of me, almost hitting my bumper.  The driver didn’t have a care in the world and thought they did nothing wrong.  Instant anger boiled up inside of me at their selfish, unsafe acts, and I wanted to retaliate.  At unexpected moments like this, I can quickly lose my connection with the Lord and let my human nature take control.  I’ve learned to take a deep breath, which helps control my actions and refocus my thoughts.  Doing a little preaching to myself helps me get back on track. 

“God loves them, and He expects me to love them. Jesus died for them, too.  You’ve cut people off in traffic before.  We’re all sinners in need of grace.”   Thoughts like these help me regain my composure and avoid impulsive actions, but it takes work and intention.

In life, we will have evil things done to us, whether intentionally or not.  The Lord has clear instructions on how we should respond.  Instead of repaying them with evil, God wants us to bless them.  For me, I start by praying, which helps me take the focus off me and put it on the Savior.  Remembering what Christ did for me motivates me to give grace to others.  We all share an imperfect nature that requires grace.  Taking the plank out of our eye helps us forgive the splinter in someone else’s.  Once we gain a new perspective, we can find a way to bless them.

Journal Question:

How do you repay evil with a blessing?

Random Act of Kindness:

How can you bless someone who wronged you today?

One-minute read.

Thankfully, I’ve had many wise women in my life whose words gave me faithful instruction. My Aunt Margie, who God called home years ago, had a profound impact on my life through her words. When I needed refuge, I would run to her, and she always knew just what to say to lift me up and help me keep going. As a mother of four, she always made time for me and poured her love and wisdom into my life.

Sitting on her front porch steps, I sat at her feet and soaked in her wisdom. A prayer warrior and faithful follower of the Lord, her knowledge came from the relationship she had with the Savior. Attending Sunday service and weekly Bible studies, she never stopped pursuing Jesus, and from that pursuit, she gained wisdom. From her lips came sound advice that changed my life and gave me the tools I needed to pursue my relationship with God.

Develop a network of wise women in your life. Ask them to coffee or lunch and pepper them with questions. Whatever your struggles, share them with women of faith and learn how they have grown and matured in their faith in Christ. By doing so, you will build your relationship with the Savior and learn how to apply His teachings to your life.

Journal Question:

What wise women do you have in your life, and how do they help you grow?

Random Act of Kindness:

How can you share faithful instruction with someone today?

One-minute read.

God, Most High, shows kindness to the ungrateful and wicked.  Starting from the end of the verse may help us understand the beginning of the verse.  Defining the ungrateful and wicked may cause certain people to pop into your mind, but does it make you think of yourself?  Each of us has complained about something in our lives we wish God had done differently.  And everyone has done something wicked, i.e., sinned.  Jesus came to Earth because of our ungrateful and wicked natures that needed saving from ourselves.

Now, when we think of our enemies, and whatever they did to become that way, maybe we have a slightly different perspective.  Judging them through our eyes can lead to incorrect assessments, but looking at them through Christ’s eyes helps us see their humanity, a condition we all share.  All of us fall short of the mark and need grace and mercy from above.  When we do good for our enemies, we exemplify Jesus and share His divine nature with others.

Praying for those who hurt you helps begin the process of doing good for them.  As we begin to see them in a different light, it will soften our hearts and help us love them for the sake of Jesus.  But we can’t do it without God.  In our human nature, they remain our enemy.  But when we align our hearts with the Lord’s and see things from His perspective, it becomes easier to live out the command to love our enemies.

Journal Question:

How does acknowledging your sin help you show grace to others?

Random Act of Kindness:

How can you actively love someone you deem an enemy today?

One-minute read.

“You choose your attitude,” Ron said a few weeks ago after listening to a podcast. I don’t know the speaker, but he left a lasting impression on my husband. The person had a simple approach to life; each morning, he chose his attitude. Instead of looking at the world from a point of despair, the person decided to approach each day with hope and anticipation.

As Christ’s followers, we should live in the hope and anticipation of what lies ahead, and as we wait, we should clothe ourselves in His cloak of love and do everything from that position.  We choose whether we want to love or not.  Doing all things in love comes from a predetermined decision of how we will engage in life, and with those God brings into our realm.

Every person you meet matters to the Creator, after all, He created them.  And God expects us to do our best to love them.  Each day, we face the same challenge: how do we love the people God puts in our path?  The person who cut you off in traffic or front of you in line, how do you love them?  When your spouse doesn’t live up to your expectations, how do you love them anyway?  When your child disappoints you with their actions, how can love help them do better next time? 

Every day, we must choose to do everything in love, and then we must figure out how to do it.

Journal Question:

Who or what challenges you the most about doing everything in love?

Random Act of Kindness:

Who can you love today that challenges you?

One-minute read.

“Love Remains,” a book I published in 2023, focuses on the 16 words in today’s verse. Faith, hope, and love, often referred to as divine sisters, guide us on life’s journey.  At the end of the day, when everything else disappears, love remains.  In life, we need faith to believe in what we can’t see, which gives us hope to persevere.  But when God calls us home, we’ll no longer need faith, nor hope, because we will bask in the love of the Lord forever.

Jesus introduced us to true love when He came to Earth to save us.  His actions, rooted in love, teach us how to actively care for others unconditionally.  Paul understood Christ’s love and worked tirelessly to help others understand the concept as well.  Not passive, love acts, giving us direction and purpose for our lives.

To fulfill the greatest commandment, love God and others (Mark 12:30-31), we must learn about love and understand it.  Nothing will grow you more than finding ways to love others, even the ones you don’t like.  I have felt hatred towards individuals who have harmed me or my family, learning to love them drew me closer to God than ever before, and helped me mature in ways I never imagined.  Love does conquer all.

Live by faith and the hope of what lies ahead, the eternal love of Jesus, in whose presence you will dwell forever.

Journal Question:

How do the divine sisters work in your life?

Random Act of Kindness:

What loving act can you do today towards someone you struggle to like?

One-minute read.

My mother comes to mind when I think of love. In second grade, when I broke my wrist, she slept with me, holding me in her arms and comforting me amidst my pain. As an adult, when I went through the valley of depression, she again held me in her arms and comforted me. And just before the Lord called her home, weak and frail in her bed, her body full of cancer, she once more pulled me into her arms and held me, a moment I will never forget.

Love has a desire to protect us from the hurts of the world. Amid our valleys, love gives us hope and helps us persevere through our struggles. Just as my mother held me, God has us in the palm of His hand, keeping us safe, despite the storms that blow around us. We can find refuge in the Lord; He never leaves nor forsakes us.

When Christ gave us the greatest commandment—to love God and others—He did so to help us discover our purpose in life. Love prompts us to prioritize others’ needs over our own. Jesus taught us how to love by His life, death, and resurrection. Following Him teaches us how to utilize the powerful emotion in our lives. As we become more like the Savior, our love will continue to grow and blossom, always protecting, always trusting, always hoping, always persevering.

Journal Question:

How have you felt God’s love in your life?

Random Act of Kindness:

How can you make love an action verb in your life today?

One-minute read.

Jesus set an example for us to follow.  In the face of persecution, Christ didn’t strike back; instead, He did all things with one result: love.  Placing our faith in the Savior begins a journey of self-discovery that unearths the not-so-pretty parts of ourselves, uproots the old, and plants new seeds.  Love requires action that starts with faith, which causes us to produce goodness as our knowledge and self-control increase, allowing us to persevere and become more like God’s Son.

In the past few days, I’ve made a discovery about myself that has revolutionized my thinking.  After an intense therapy session, my counselor helped me understand where my fear of people originated.  Getting to the root of the problem allowed me to dig out the lie and plant a new seed.  Adding goodness to my life in this situation means giving people the benefit of the doubt instead of assuming the worst, which allows me to love better and not let fear keep me from the blessing.

The more we put our faith into practice, the more we will discover God’s plan for our lives.  Living a life for the Lord adds to it goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and love.  Allowing the Holy Spirit to lead our lives transforms us from our past selves into devoted followers of Christ, loving God and others with our whole heart.

Journal Question:

How has following Jesus transformed your life?

Random Act of Kindness:

How can you add goodness to your life today?

One-minute read.

Covering all sins doesn’t mean atoning for someone else’s frailties, but instead not broadcasting them to the world. When I discover a fault in my husband’s behavior, instead of telling others about it, I keep it to myself and honor him by not sharing embarrassing stories about him. He does the same for me. In other words, we hold each other’s secrets as a way of showing our love.

Christ teaches us to forgive others’ faults because He forgave ours. Once we understand the gift of grace, we want to extend it to others. Everyone falls short of the mark, expecting perfection from people only sets you up for heartache. Allowing others to falter and loving them anyway gives them room to grow. We learn from our mistakes, not define ourselves by them. I don’t want people to define me by the mistake I made thirty years ago; becoming a new creature in Christ allows me to leave those sins behind and do things differently today.

Instead of broadcasting people’s shortcomings to the world, cover them with love. Allow them the space to learn and grow from their mistakes, experiencing the saving grace of the Savior. Become more like Jesus by forgiving others’ sins and loving them unconditionally.

Journal Question:

How has experiencing Christ’s saving grace helped you show grace to others?

Random Act of Kindness:

Whose sins can you cover with love today?

One-minute read.

Experiencing unfailing love gives us the confidence to live our lives to the fullest. When Jesus came to save the lost, He did it for more than one reason. Saving us from ourselves and giving us an eternal connection to the Creator opens the door for abundant life. We can let our faith stay ahead of our minds as we overcome fears and take bold steps into the unknown because Jesus has our back, loving us unconditionally, even if we fail.

Loyal love defines God’s affection for us. Nothing we do can separate us from the Almighty once we place our faith in Him. Like the Israelites of the Old Testament, we turn from the Lord, getting lost in our selfish desires, but He doesn’t leave us. When we recognize the error of our ways and confess them to the Savior, He wraps us in His arms and loves us, thankful for our return.

Jesus knew some people would reject His gift of salvation, yet He died on the cross anyway. Imitating the Son means we do all things in love, even if people reject it. We can’t control what other people do, but we can control our actions. Becoming more like Christ means having loyal love for the people in our lives, always leading with truth and affection, taking the next right step, regardless of the outcome.

Journal Question:

How does knowing God loves you, no matter what, give you confidence?

Random Act of Kindness:

What can you do to show unconditional love to someone today?