Teach Me

Teach me how to love
Place the blood of Christ upon the lintel of my mind
And the doorposts of my heart
Cover me with the wings of Your grace
Do Your mighty work in me, Lord
And free me from the curse of flawed reasoning
And the bane of distorted perspective.

Teach me how to love:

To love the unlovely
To love the broken
To love the jaded
To love the proud
To love the misguided
To love the misunderstood
To love the ignorant
To love the stubborn
To love those who fail
To love those who make excuses
To love those who don't listen

Teach me how to love all these

Because this is who You love
When You love me.

"If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same." (Luke 6:32,33)

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." (1 Cor 13:1-3)

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs. It does not delight in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails." (1 Cor 13:4-8)

"A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so also you must love one another." (John 13:34)