It means being willing to endure tense and uncomfortable situations lovingly.
It means not allowing yourself plausible excuses that seemingly free you from love's call.
It means making a commitment to being a faithful friend.
It means being willing to take on big things, even as you humbly admit your limits.
It means keeping your promises and being faithful to your word.
It means being open to correction, loving criticism, and godly rebuke.
It means believing in the body of Christ and recognizing that you are but one of the tools in God's big toolbox of redemption.
It means being open to counsel and receptive to advice.
It means being willing to go to bed tired and to awake to another day of calling.
It means hiding God's Word in your heart and keeping his Kingdom always before your eyes.
It means refusing to become anyone's substitute messiah, but instead to point people to the presence and grace of Jesus.
It really does mean looking out not only for your own interests, but also for the interests of others.
It means building relationships, not just for the purpose of being relationally comfortable, but so that those relationships would be a workroom for redemption.
It means loving people in such a way that they never feel like they are in debt to you.
It means remembering that you are more like than unlike the people you are called to love.
It means understanding that the call to love is a call to both word and deed.
It means daily remembering Jesus, being in awe of the gift of his love, and living thankfully. Broken-Down House, Paul David Tripp, p. 174.
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