Love the unlovely

We’ve probably all heard the phrase “love your neighbor as yourself” more times than we can count. It’s a catchphrase for our daily walk. I first learned it in my young sunday school days, and it has followed me for the rest of my life. But the problem is, to hear it and to live it out are two different things, to recite it and to implement it are complete opposites. It’s easy to make goals in our minds, it’s easy to create task for ourselves in our minds, but the only way those will ever get these done is if we act upon them. I find myself listening in church, and taking everything in, but not applying it to my life. This is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. We don’t go to church just so we can fill our minds with knowledge, that is one reason, but another is so that we can learn how to live our daily walks with God. We can’t do it on our own, and it’s important to be engaged in fellowship, accountability, and mentors. These are all important ways to strengthen our faith. But other people cannot live our faith out for us, that is our job. We have to be willing to do our share. We have to be strong enough to put our faith to action. Loving those around us is one very important way of living out our faith. I’ve always known this, but had a very hard time truly following it. I would hear my friends making fun of someone, and let them know that it is unkind, but then I would think similar things to what they were saying in my mind. Loving the unlovely is a huge struggle of mine. It’s a hard thing to do. Some people I can get along with very well, but there are those people who just get on every last nerve with every word they say. It’s uncontrollable to be irritated by their comments. How can we stop that? How can we change not only our words but our thoughts? The only answer that I have to that is God. I surround myself with good godly people, I live a Christian lifestyle on the outside. But the only way to change our inner feelings is to incorporate God inside of us, not just on the outside, because that is just putting on a show. We have to be constantly filling our mind with things of God, positive things, holy things. Phillipians 4:8 says, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” The only way that we can learn to truly think in this way is to fill our mind with God. I’ve realized this more and more recently. I had previously had the belief that as long as I knew that I didn’t agree with something, I could still participate in it. As long as I knew that homosexuality was a sin, I could watch shows that exercised this lifestyle. As long as I knew that sex before marriage was wrong, I could still listen to music talking about this this. But the more I watched, and the more I listened to it, the more unaware I became of the sin that was practiced. It started to not phase me anymore. My parents would advise me not to fill my mind with these things, but I was still under the mindset that I knew these programs were wrong therefore it was acceptable to watch these things. But let me tell you, that is not the case. You only become more and more numb to these sins, and you learn to agree with them without even realizing it. I would warn you based on past experience that following Phillipians 4:8 as strictly as possible is only for the best. God is not trying to limit us from engaging in enjoyable activities, he is only trying to help us to stay on the right path.