The way to love someone
is to lightly run your finger over that person's soul
until you find a crack,
and then gently pour your love into that crack.
~Keith Miller

Saturday, June 4, 2011

WORDS

photo via A-Mused/Fr. Chircop
...still thinking about the good Christian idea ... the Bible talks about the fruit of the spirit being increasing evident in the life of a Christian

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control ... against such things there is no law.  ~Galatians 5:22-23 NIV

This might be one way to look at what is a good Christian ... one problem with this approach that is immediately apparent is these are just words and words mean different things to different people ... love, for example.  In English there is but one word to express the many faces of love.  Well ... the devil is in the details ... I think I'll try a broad brush approach this morning and work down from there ... just like a painting.
love .......................................................indifference
joy  .....................................................................fear
peace ..................frustration or obscurity/vagueness
forbearance.....impatience or harshness or stiffness
kindness ........................................malice or cruelty
goodness ........................................pride or cunning
faithfulness ...................................................breach
gentleness ............................pride, power, authority
self control ...................self-indulgent or impulsive

other notes and synonyms for ...
love: affection, adoration, friendship, tenderness, feeling, fondness, devotion, passion, ardor, amity

joy: happiness, delight, pleasure, enjoyment, bliss, ecstasy, elation, joyfulness, thrill, gladness, exultation, rapture ... delight, jewel, wonder, treasure, pearl
 ... another antonym for joy is sadness

peace: peacetime, amity, harmony, armistice, reconciliation, ceasefire, accord, goodwill ... calm, quiet,stillness,tranquility, silence, harmony, serenity
... antomyms for = war, uproar,

forbearance:  patience, self-control, restraint, tolerance, moderation, leniency.  The capacity of enduring hardship or inconvenience without complaint: long-suffering, patience, resignation, tolerance

kindness: compassion, gentleness, sympathy, kindheartedness, benevolence, thoughtfulness, humanity, consideration, helpfulness, charity
antomym for may be wrath

goodness: moral excellence, virtue/virtuous

faithfulness: hinges on what we value and is combined with commitment to what one percieves as truly important.  The opposite of faithfulness is breach which stands for the seisure and usurption of rights. It is one of the meanest qualities and nastiest manners which cause indignity, failure, and disappointment ... not my words, found elsewhere, but I can't now find to footnote!

gentleness: mildness, tenderness, mellowness, quietness, softness, tranquilness, peacefulness, restfulness

self-control ... kinda surprises me that a word with self is included on the list, because it seems like Christians are encouraged away from self.  But ... self-control may be describe as restraint, will power, discipline, strenght of mind or will

Somethings to think about ... and errands to run!






And on 3 September I saw this beautiful graphic and asked for permission to put it here. I saw it on his site A-MUSED , a blog I enjoy looking in on occasionally ... usually very thought provoking. I was interested to see another person exploring a similar idea, and of course the graphic rocks. I was happy when he was okay with me saving a copy of it here. 

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