Love is both a noun and a verb. It’s not only what we think or feel; it’s also what we do. When Mother Teresa arrived in Calcutta in 1948, one of the first things she did was pick up five abandoned children and bring them to her ‘school’. Before the year ended she had forty-one students learning about hygiene in her classroom, which was in a public park. Soon her work became known as ‘The Missionaries of Charity’, and they turned their attention to the care of the dying. A beggar found dying on a rubbish heap was picked up and brought to her. Hunger and suffering had reduced him almost to a skeleton. Mother Teresa took him home and put him to bed. As she tried to clean him up and make him comfortable, he briefly woke up, and in his semi-conscious state he asked her, ‘Why do you do it?’ Mother Teresa responded with two words: ‘For love.’ It’s easy for us to see people as irritants and inconveniences who are standing in our way. But it can be hard for us to set aside our self-centred feelings and love them, especially if that means giving up our time or doing something we find difficult or unpleasant in order to help them. The Bible says, ‘Dear friends, we should love each other, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has become God’s child and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love’ (v.7-8 NCV). Let’s do our best to show love in all our words, thought and actions.

What Now?

Think of someone who tends to irritate you. Ask God to help you think of them with love, and try today to say something to them and do something for them that shows you care about them.